The Blackstone Group Inc sent an unsolicited indicative proposal on 22 March to acquire all shares in Crown at an indicative price of AU$11.85 ($9.01) cash per share. The proposal was subject to a number of terms and conditions, including a regulatory confirmation that Blackstone was suitable to “continue to own and operate the Sydney, Melbourne & Perth licences and other gaming-related approvals as required.”
In the announcement, Crown revealed several conditions that must be cleared for the deal to progress, such as Blackstone receiving “approval from each relevant regulatory authority to acquire 100% of the issued shares in Crown as required under the applicable casino legislation and framework agreements in each of their respective States”. Blackstone is expected to receive probity approval from each state’s gaming regulators by Q3 2021.
Additionally, Crown will have to ensure that none of its casino licenses is revoked or under a threat of being cancelled or suspended in any of the states in which the company operates: Western Australia, Victoria or New South Wales. Crown stated its board is still assessing the proposal.
The proposal from Blackstone came after a series of investigations into alleged money-laundering in some of Crown’s casinos, as well as the poor operations management.
