{"id":2632,"date":"2020-01-22T10:59:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T10:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=2632"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:40:41","slug":"crown-resorts-deal-melco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-deal-melco","title":{"rendered":"Crown Resorts faces questions over Melco deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crown faces inquiry into breach of license terms after it failed to alert authorities about the sale of shares to Melco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Crown Resorts failed to alert authorities about a sale of shares to Macau-based Melco International before the deal was announced publicly, potentially breaching the terms of its licence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also raised questions about Crown\u2019s suitability as a casino operator, according to attorney Adam Bell SC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last May, Melco agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in Crown Resorts for A$1.75 billion (about US$1.2 billion) just two years after the Australian company had withdrawn from a decade-long venture with the Macau-based operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an initial hearing on Tuesday, it was argued that Crown\u2019s failure to alert regulators about the Melco deal opened up questions about Crown\u2019s suitability as a licensed casino operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, both Lawrence Ho – Melco International Chairman- and the billionaire behind Crown Resorts, James Packer, were on the list of witnesses to be called during the course of the high-stakes inquiry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the hearing, Crown Resorts\u2019 casino license for its Sydney\u2019s Barangaroo IR hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Packer announced earlier this month that the multi-billion dollar Barangaroo<\/em><\/strong><\/a> development is now scheduled to open at Christmas 2020, presuming its license is issued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crown faces inquiry into breach of license terms after it failed to alert authorities about the sale of shares to Melco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Crown Resorts faces a regulatory inquiry for failing to notify Australian authorities about the A$1.75 billion sale of a 20% stake to Melco International, potentially breaching its license terms. This oversight raises significant questions regarding Crown's suitability as a casino operator, jeopardizing the licensing for its Sydney Barangaroo Integrated Resort. Key figures like Lawrence Ho and James Packer are expected to testify.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Melco International, Adam Bell SC, Lawrence Ho, James Packer","focusai_location":"Australia, Macau, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Barangaroo License Impact","query":"What specific regulatory precedents could this inquiry set for future integrated resort licensing and M&A disclosure requirements in Australia?"},{"label":"Crown Governance Review","query":"How might this regulatory scrutiny influence Crown Resorts' corporate governance framework and its suitability assessment for other operational licenses?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,16336,28,156,158],"tags":[289,29,337],"class_list":["post-2632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-australasia-news","category-casino-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-australia","tag-casino","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2659,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions\/2659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}