Perpetual Limited has sold AU$26m (US$17.17m) worth of shares in the casino operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- The Star Entertainment Group<\/strong> has announced through a company filing that Perpetual Limited<\/strong> and its related bodies corporate have ceased to be a substantial shareholder of the company. The Motley Fool has reported that the equity manager sold AU$26m (US$17.17m) worth of shares<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Star Entertainment Group shares fell further on Monday after the news. Shares are down nearly 60 per cent year-to-date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The news comes after the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission<\/strong> (NICC) decided to extend the suspension of the Star’s casino licence<\/a> in the state. It has also fined the casino operator AU$15m (US$10m). Meanwhile, Nicholas Weeks will remain in place as the\u00a0NICC-appointed manager<\/a>\u00a0until at least March 31, 2025, when the regulator will reassess The Star\u2019s suitability to regain its casino licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NICC has also required the company to submit additional financial and operational reports <\/strong>between now and March 2025. It also proposed more prescriptive requirements on the constitution of the board of directors and key management personnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The casino operator posted\u00a0revenue of AU$351m (US$230.85m) <\/strong>for the first quarter of its financial year, down 18 per cent year-on-year and 11 per cent sequentially. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was negative AU$18m (US$11.84m) compared to positive AU$23m (US$15.1m) in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company cited a \u201cchallenging operating environment and the continued implementation of mandatory carded play and cash limits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0Star Sydney\u00a0<\/strong>revenue was AU$186m (US$122.23m), down 11 per cent sequentially and 16 per cent in year-on-year terms. EBITDA was negative AU$21m (US$13.8m) compared to positive AU$22m (US$14.47m) in the first quarter of the last financial year. The casino operator was\u00a0affected by a AU$4.4m (US$2.9m) impact from system outages in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 50 days before the introduction of mandatory carded play and cash limits on August 19, revenue was down 11 per cent compared to the prior-year average. Since August 19, revenue declined a further 12 per cent. Electronic gaming machines have faced pressure from competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Star Gold Coast<\/strong> revenue was AU$108m (US$71m), down 9 per cent year-on-year but up 6 per cent compared to the previous quarter. EBITDA was positive at AU$7m (US$4.6m) but down 33 per cent from the previous quarter and down 70 per cent yearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treasury Brisbane<\/a> posted a revenue of AU$53m (US$38.86m), with EBITDA of AU$2m (US$1.32m). The venue closed<\/a> on August 25. The Star Brisbane<\/a>, which commenced operations on August 29, brought in AU$4m (US$2.63m), but EBITDA was negative AU$7m (US$4.6m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Star reported its available cash as of September 30 as AU$149m (US$98m), boosted by net proceeds of AU$60.4m (US$39.72m) from the sale of the Treasury Brisbane Casino building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perpetual Limited has sold AU$26m (US$17.17m) worth of shares in the casino operator.<\/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":"Perpetual Limited has divested AU$26m in The Star Entertainment Group shares, coinciding with a significant decline in Star's stock value. This follows the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission's extension of Star's license suspension, a AU$15m fine, and ongoing stringent oversight until at least March 2025. The casino operator reported a challenging Q1 FY, with substantial revenue and EBITDA declines attributed to regulatory mandates like carded play and cash limits, alongside system outages.","focusai_entities":"Perpetual Limited, The Star Entertainment Group, The Motley Fool, New South Wales Independent Casino Commission, Nicholas Weeks","focusai_location":"Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), tech_data (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Star's Recovery Strategy?","query":"What specific strategic initiatives is The Star Entertainment Group implementing to address the extended license suspension, negative EBITDA, and regain regulatory suitability by March 2025?"},{"label":"Regulatory Impact on GGR?","query":"How are the mandatory carded play and cash limits impacting the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) across The Star's various gaming verticals, and what are the long-term projections?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,163],"tags":[23871],"class_list":["post-777020456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-finance-news","tag-the-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020456","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=777020456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777020468,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777020456\/revisions\/777020468"}],"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=777020456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777020456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777020456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}