GGRAsia – Crown completes exit from Melco Resorts

Crown completes exit from Melco Resorts

May 16, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck, World

Australia-based casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd has completed the disposal of its remaining stake in Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, the Australian firm said on Tuesday. As a result, “Crown Resorts no longer holds an interest in Melco Resorts,” the company said in a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Crown Resorts’ sole remaining nominee director in Melco Resorts, Robert Rankin, has resigned as a non-executive director of the Asian firm.

Melco Resorts announced in early May that it would repurchase Crown Resorts’ remaining shareholding in the firm, using the proceeds from an offering of American depository shares and ordinary shares and backed by several investment banks.

Crown Resorts had previously said that it expected to generate net proceeds of approximately US$987 million from the disposal of its remaining stake in Melco Resorts. The Australian firm said it would use the proceeds to reduce debt.

On Monday, Melco Resorts Finance Ltd – a unit of Nasdaq-listed Melco Resorts – announced it would conduct an international offering of senior notes due 2025. The net proceeds of the offering will be used to fund the redemption of all of Melco Resorts Finance’s outstanding senior notes due 2021.

Melco Resorts – which owns and operates casino properties in Macau and in the Philippines – said it would not be a guarantor of the new notes to be offered by its subsidiary. The interest rate and other terms of the new notes will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering, the firm said.