lhetz   Album Posted Nov.18th, 2023, viewed 34 times

James Packer Crown Resort Sells $100M Stake in Novu

Australian billionaire James Packer and his Crown Resorts have been in the spotlight for the past week as they recently opened Studio City, a new casino estimated at around $3.2 billion in Macau, and had a grand opening ceremony that invited the world's biggest celebrities. Crown Resorts is once again in the spotlight for its $100 million investment this time to acquire a 20% stake in Novu, a world-renowned hotel and restaurant company.

The remaining 80% of Novu is owned by several investors, including celebrities Robert De Niro, Mayer Tepper, Drew Niforrent, and Novu Matsuhisa. The recent acquisition of 20% of the company allowed Packer to be named as one of the four board members. Popular Japanese hotels and restaurants have branches in New York, California, and Hawaii, while the Novu brand is also spread worldwide, with Novu hotels and restaurants in Greece, Dubai, Malaysia, South Africa, and Australia.

Crown chairman Rob Rankin said in a statement: "The Novu brand sees it as complementing Crown Resorts' global luxury entertainment positioning and the Novu business has an attractive short-term growth profile, with many new restaurants and hotel openings planned. James Packer had a crown relationship with his elderly father a few years ago. We now have Novu restaurants in Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth and Novu hotels in City of Dreams – Manila."

Crown Resorts has a pipeline full of projects that require huge investment, and Moody's Investors Service says Novu's purchase of a 20% stake will go down as a credit negative for the company. In addition to the $3.2 billion Studio City Casino, which just opened in Macau, the Crown Resort is expected to see new projects in Sydney's Barangaroo Area, a $2 billion mega casino resort and hotel complex in Melbourne's Southbank area, and in Perth, Australia and Las Vegas, Nevada, over the next few years.

Crown Resorts is expected to require more than $6 billion in financing over the next few years, and investors are concerned about the amount needed to be financed. Shares of the company fell 1.7 per cent to A$11.47 after news broke that Crown had bought $100 million from Novu, bringing its shares to a total of 9.6 per cent in 2015.
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