Oaktree Capital Management has written to Crown Resorts, setting out modifications to its proposal to buy the operator.
According to its statement, the revised Oaktree proposal is for an AU$3.1bn (US$2.39bn) facility consisting of two tranches: a AU$2bn private term loan (Loan Component) and a AU$1.1bn loan convertible into new shares to be issued by Crown (Convertible Component).
“The term of the proposed facility is seven years,” said the statement. “A coupon of 6% p.a. would be payable for the first two years of the facility and the coupon would increase to 6.5% p.a. from year 3 until the maturity of the facility.”
The number of new Crown shares which would be issued to Oaktree upon conversion would be capped at approximately 10% of total Crown shares. The Crown Board has not yet formed a view on the merits of the revised Oaktree proposal.
Oaktree initially sent its unsolicited, non-binding and indicative proposal to buy some or all of Crown shares at AU$12 per share on 19 April 2021.
Despite the difficulties Crown is going through with the ongoing royal commission and the investigation into the company’s inner workings, it has received several proposals for M&A.
On 10 May, Star Entertainment Group announced it had submitted a proposal to merge with Crown at a share exchange ratio of 2.68 Star shares per Crown share.
And on 22 March, Crown received an acquisition proposal from Blackstone to “acquire all of the shares in Crown by way of a scheme of arrangement at an indicative price of A$11.85 cash per share." Crown, though, did reject this offer.
