Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is selling more of its stake in Melco Crown Entertainment (MCE) and scrapping its Las Vegas casino project.
On Wednesday, Crown sought a halt in trading in its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange after alerting investors that it was selling 198m shares in the MCE joint venture to Hong Kong-listed developer Melco International Development, which is owned by MCE CEO Lawrence Ho.
The sale represents 13.4% of outstanding shares in MCE, which operates casinos in Macau and Manila. Crown said it expects the sale to realize a payday of around A$1.6b (US $1.2b), “subject to upward adjustments for interest” if the deal isn’t closed by March 1, 2017.
Crown plans to use half of its windfall to pay down its net debt. Another A$500m will be returned to shareholders via a special distribution, while the remaining A$300m will enable a share buy-back program.