James Packer’s Crown Casino Gives Up on Las Vegas
James Packer's Crown has ruled out injecting more cash into the stricken US casino development company Fontainebleau Resorts after the US company's banks withdrew financing for a $US3 billion ($4.2 billion) casino project in Las Vegas last week.
Crown's spokesman, Gary O'Neill, told Xchange yesterday the Packer camp was not in talks with Fontainebleau about helping out. That is not surprising, given Crown has already had to write down its initial $US250 million investment in the US company - a 19.6 per cent stake bought last year.
Eleven of Fontainebleau's lenders withdrew their financing for a new casino project the company is trying to complete on the Las Vegas Strip.
Their refusal came after Fontainebleau, which is Crown's last remaining foothold in the American gambling mecca, defaulted on $US800 million in loans last week.
Crown has had a string of bad luck in Las Vegas. It attempts to build the world's tallest casino failed due to financing problems. It also ended up negotiating its way out of a deal to buy the Cannery casino group, paying a hefty break fee to take just a small stake after asset values in Las Vegas plummeted. It was also burned by a $242 million investment in Station Casinos at the top of the market. That is now worthless.
Source: Brisbane Times
