Billionaire James Packer's private investment firm, Consolidated Press Holdings, has downplayed speculation that he is seeking to privatise casinos operator Crown Resorts.
Billionaire James Packer's private investment firm, Consolidated Press Holdings, has downplayed speculation that he is seeking to privatise casinos operator Crown Resorts.
Consolidated Press Holdings is Crown's controlling shareholder, with a stake of 53.01 per cent.
CPH said today that, if it intended to pursue a buy-out or privatisation of Crown, it would put forward a proposal to Crown's independent directors.
"CPH has not put forward any proposal of the nature speculated in the media to the Crown Resorts Limited independent directors," CPH said in a statement.
CPH said it does have confidential talks from time to time regarding its investments, including its stake in Crown.
But that did not mean that any proposal, such as that speculated in the media, would be made by CPH in the future.
Meanwhile, Crown said it was unaware of any proposal for a possible joint bid for Crown and had not received any such proposal.
Speculation that Mr Packer wants to privatise parts of or all of Crown drove Crown shares up more than 10 per cent on Wednesday.
Its shares were 29 cents lower at $11.48 at 9am today.
Media reports have said Mr Packer has had talks with private equity firms in recent weeks seeking potential funding to buy all of or some of Crown's assets.
Morningstar analyst Brian Han said the CPH statement indicated that CPH had not made any concrete proposals about privatising Crown.
"The only thing that stood out is that they (CPH) did not deny that they look at these things," he said.
Mr Han said Mr Packer certainly has reason to consider privatising Crown.
"Number one, he (Mr Packer) thinks his shares in Crown are being undervalued by the market," he said.
"And he thinks the market is fixated on short-term concerns.
"The second thing is that the Packer family has always been a very private family, and they don't like to be in the press very much."
Furthermore, going private could open up new avenues of funding for Mr Packer's casino empire.
"Everything being equal, he (Mr Packer) would rather be private than public," Mr Han said.
Crown, which has a market capitalisation of around $8.5 billion and operates casinos in Melbourne and Perth.
It also plans to build a luxury six-star hotel and VIP-only casino at Barangaroo South in Sydney's CBD.
Crown holds interests in casinos and hotels in Macau and Manila, through its joint-venture Melco Crown Entertainment.
The company also plans to develop a casino resort in the gambling hub of Las Vegas.
Mr Packer stood down as chairman of Crown in August so he could spend more time in the US, where his children live, and focus on the casino group's global expansion, especially in Asia and Las Vegas.
In November, CPH lifted its stake in Crown by 3 per cent, from 50.01 per cent to 53.01 per cent.
