Crown Resorts, the biggest owner and operator of land-based casinos in Australia, has received an improved takeover bid from Blackstone Group, the powerful global private equity group.
The discussions between the two parties started in March 2021, when Blackstone offered a price of 11.85 Australian dollars cash per share to take over Crown Resorts. That bid was rejected and later the buyer came up with an improved bid, offering 12.35 dollars per share.
That bid was not good enough either, and in November 2021 Blackstone made another improved offer, proposing a price of 12.50 Australian dollars per share. Blackstone already owns 9.9 percent of Crown Resorts, a stake that was acquired from Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, the giant Asian gaming group, in April 2020. The price per share at that time was 8.15 dollars.
The November bid was rejected as well and now Blackstone seems ready to make the final push, offering a price of 13.1 Australian dollars per share. The overall value of the company at this share price would be 9 billion Australian dollars. Crown Resorts revealed that the revised proposal from Blackstone was received in response to information provided by Crown during initial due diligence.
