Crown Casinos continues expansion into U.S.

Photo of the Crown Macau by Kimberly Johans (c) All Rights Reserved.

Photo of the Melbourne Crown Casino

Crown Casinos makes moves into the United States

Casinos operator Crown Ltd, a giant casino operator says that their Australian casinos are performing strongly and is now continuing to expand in the United States. Crown Casino is the largest casino in Australia and just a while back they have taken a small stake at Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., one of the largest gaming operators in the United States. Crown Casinos’ investment with Harrah’s Entertainment has reached the amount of $172 million for a 2.5% stake of Harrah’s Entertainment. Aside from Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, during the first half of the fiscal year 2008, Crown casino also revealed that it has invested with Stations Casino Group which is also located in the United States. Cown Casino invested $242 million in a 4.9% stake in the Stations Casino Group.

Rowen Craigie, the chief executive of Crown Casino Ltd., told the journalists that their approach to a lot of international projects is that they are happy to partner. He also told the journalist that they are not longing for a large stake in Harrah’s. Craigie was being asked if they are happy with the small stakes with these partners, and he said yes and that Crown Casino doesn’t have any plans to increasing their stakes in Harrah’s Entertainment.

James Packer and Crown Casinos

Crown Casino has split from James Packer’s gaming and media group, Publishing and Broadcasting (PBL), last year and reported a net profit of $211.4 million even with the split. This was their first set of income after splitting and it is down by 40.2 percent compared to a $353.6 million profit in the first half of 2006 and 2007.

Crown Casinos’ report has excluded its discontinued operations and their non-recurring items related to their demerger from PBL. Crown Ltd’s discontinued operations and non-recurring gains reached the amount of $3.43 billion. This amount will make their reported net profit of $3.62 billion overstated.

Crown’s casino in Melbourne, the Burswood Casino in Perth and the Crown Macau casino in Macau have experienced a below-theoretical win rates. This performance has seriously affected their first half result. Despite of that effect, their first half result is very satisfying according to the chief executive of Corwn Casino, Mr Craigie. Crown Melbourne and Burswood casino in Perth were showing a solid income growth. And the one that repositioned as VIP casino was Crown Macau.

After the commencement of operations by AMA, Crown’s VIP turnover has increased. Because of this, Crown Macau’s performance right now is trading ahead of budget.

Casino operator Cannery Casino Resorts LLC will be acquired by Crown Ltd., for $US1.75 billion. It was being announced by Crown Casino Ltd., last December.

Crown Casino Ltd also has an improved margin because of the productivity improvements at Crown Melbourne and Burswood casino in Perth. Crown Macau was repositioned to attract more high-rolling gamblers and significantly causes the improvement of its performance.

According to Mr. Craigie the wealthy VIP customer base of Crown Melbourne and Burswood Casino in Perth had grown even if there are fears that Crown Macau could cannibalize it.