Crown plans to use the funds to repurchase its shares from Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), a significant shareholder holding approximately 37% of the company’s shares.
The proposal, made by a company representing funds managed and advised by Oaktree Capital Management, is preliminary, non-binding, and subject to shareholder approval. Crown has not yet formed an opinion on the merits of the offer and will initiate a process to evaluate it.
There is no guarantee that the offer will lead to a transaction.
This offer comes at a time when Crown is also facing a takeover bid from private equity firm Blackstone, which has already acquired a 9.99% stake in the company and offered AUD 8.02 billion to acquire the remaining 90.1% of shares.
Blackstone has recently revised its bid to include conditions that would cancel the deal if Crown’s existing licenses are suspended or if it does not receive a license in New South Wales. The operator has been deemed “unsuitable” to operate a casino in Sydney’s Barangaroo district and is undergoing inquiries in Victoria and Western Australia. If none of these conditions arise, the acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021.
