{"id":27508,"date":"2022-02-23T08:31:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T11:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=27508"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:05:24","slug":"star-entertainment-wont-match-blackstones-crown-resorts-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/star-entertainment-wont-match-blackstones-crown-resorts-offer","title":{"rendered":"Star Entertainment won’t match Blackstone’s Crown Resorts offer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The possibility of a merger between the two gaming giants now seems unlikely after Crown Resorts\u2019 board backed the offer from private equity giant Blackstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- When Star Entertainment<\/a>\u00a0made an offer of AU$12bn\u00a0(US$9.4bn)\u00a0for Crown Resorts in May 2021, it raised the possibility of a merger between Australia’s two largest casino operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Star Entertainment Group later withdrew its offer<\/a> due to uncertainty surrounding the future of Crown Resorts\u2019 casino licence in Melbourne. But, since Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission\u00a0allowed Crown Resorts to keep the licence<\/a>\u00a0under stricter conditions, there’s been speculation about whether Star Entertainment Group could make\u00a0another move<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that now seems impossible as Matt Bekier, Star\u2019s CEO,<\/strong>\u00a0has said the company\u00a0does not plan to match an improved AUD8.9bn (US$6.36bn) offer\u00a0from private equity group Blackstone<\/strong>, which has been unanimously approved by Crown Resorts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bekier confirmed that\u00a0Star Entertainment was not prepared to pay such a high price for Crown Resorts’ assets, especially given the regulatory action against the operator and the lack of synergies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Star Entertainment reports six-month net loss of US$53.2m<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on Star Entertainment Group is apparent in the company\u2019s latest financial report, which shows a net loss of AU$74m (US$53.2m)<\/strong> for the six months ending December 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group-wide gross revenue fell 29 per cent year-on-year<\/strong> to AU$581m (US$418m) while EBITDA declined 87 per cent to AU$31m (US$22.3m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for VIP gaming, the report shows an 89 per cent decline to AU$1.8m (US$1.3m), while domestic gaming revenue fell 24.3 per cent to AU$498m (US$358.3m). There was a slight increase in non-gaming revenue to AU$8.5m (US$6.1m).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The possibility of a merger between the two gaming giants now seems unlikely after Crown Resorts\u2019 board backed the offer from private equity giant Blackstone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The proposed merger between Star Entertainment Group and Crown Resorts is now improbable as Star has declined to counter Blackstone's AUD8.9bn acquisition offer, which Crown's board unanimously approved. Star cited the high valuation, regulatory complexities, and lack of strategic synergies as reasons, while also reporting a significant net loss and declines in GGR and EBITDA for the recent half-year.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, Star Entertainment Group, Blackstone, Matt Bekier, Victoria's Royal Commission","focusai_location":"Australia, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Star's Future Strategy?","query":"Given Star Entertainment's withdrawal from the Crown Resorts bid and its recent financial performance, what are the immediate strategic imperatives for Star to enhance shareholder value and mitigate ongoing regulatory risks?"},{"label":"Blackstone's Integration Plan?","query":"Following Crown Resorts' board approval of Blackstone's offer, what are the anticipated operational and governance changes Blackstone will implement to address Crown's regulatory challenges and optimize asset performance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157,158],"tags":[14657,23871],"class_list":["post-27508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","category-slider-home","tag-crown-resorts","tag-the-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27508","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27527,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27508\/revisions\/27527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}