SGR ASX: Billionaire Bruce Mathieson backs Ballys bid for Star with $50m sweetener

Sign Up for Take StockInvestment news, stock ideas, and more, straight to your inbox. The Star is continuing to engage with the Joint Venture Partners and will provide an update if there are any material developments regarding the parties’ respective interests in DBC and DGCC. However, Star and its JV partners were “unable to reach agreement on a number of outstanding commercial issues” relating to the deal. Revenues are down, with Star Entertainment reporting an unaudited $270 million in revenue for 4Q FY25, down 31% on 4Q FY24. “[It’s] loaded with $650 million of its own debt, is still less than 50 per cent operational and requires hundreds of millions of dollars in additional capital expenditure to complete,” Mr Mayne noted.
Star investors who got excited on Monday by the left-field emergence of a mystery Macau buyer of the casino’s shares would be wise to curb their enthusiasm. There is nothing about Xingchun Wang’s taking a 5.5 per cent stake that looks like a white knight rescue attempt. Morningstar lowers our Uncertainty Rating from Extreme to very high after the results of the second bell inquiry were passed down. The scrutiny into Star’s suitability to hold a casino licence ended in the best plausible outcome that the company could have hoped for. Whilst they are currently deemed unsuitable to hold a online casino live dealer games Australia license, the enquiry ruled that the license need not be revoked entirely. Star’s core asset is The Star Sydney, which at one point was generating ~70% of the group’s earnings as the only casino in Sydney.
Star also secured a $200 million debt facility to cover some of its short-term financial needs, but this comes with a hefty 13.5% interest rate. Star will have to repay more than $36 million to its consortium partners between now and September, but the bigger issue is how it will shoulder its share of future equity contributions and Treasure Island gaming floor 2027 the consortium’s debt. “As noted in the company’s recent ASX announcements, there remains material uncertainty as to the group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” it said. Star Entertainment has narrowly dodged financial collapse with thousands of jobs saved after a US casino giant swooped in to rescue the flailing business.
An American RocketPlay casino jackpots operator controlled by a New York hedge fund has joined the opportunists sniffing around embattled Star Entertainment Group, which is on its last legs and UK no deposit slots no wagering desperately seeking a capital injection to avoid administration. The casino operator warned that additional equity may be required as part of the refinancing of the DBC debt facility. Star first entered the deal with its the Hong Kong investors in early March, after months of warnings about its financial future — and prior to the bigger deal struck with Bally’s and the Mathiesons. The Australian Financial Review reported that the company had failed to raise the funding required to meet near-term payments, including for payroll, which puts the company at serious risk of running out of cash. After a brief trading halt on Friday morning, Star shares plunged 15.4 per cent to 11¢, valuing the company once worth $5 billion at about $315 million. Star did not name the parties that are expected to provide an offer of financing, but it has confirmed previously that US finance giant Oaktree has tried to buy out Star’s debt from its lenders.
Star has been in talks with the owners of the other half of Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf development — Hong Kong investors Far East Consortium International and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises — since mid-February. Embattled casino group Star Entertainment will stay alive, for now, after securing a $53 million lifeline in return for selling its 50 per cent stake in the new Brisbane casino. The ASX 200 and the All Ordinaries index both ended Monday’s session 1.8 per cent lower, wiping off about $50 billion in market value. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Morningstar Index (Market Barometer) quotes are real-time.
Star Entertainment was suspended from trading by the ASX on Monday over its failure to lodge financial statements for the December half-year. Star Entertainment Group was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday as the group faces scrutiny over a series of scandals related to criminal activity and unethical conduct at its casinos. “Any deal that promises to keep venues in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney operating as a going concern is a good result for the Star workers, their families and the communities they live in,” the union’s casino director Andrew Jones said. “We’re always looking at everything within the best interest of the staff certainly our shareholders,” Daniel Finch, CEO The Star Brisbane, said 7NEWS on Monday.
Exchange operator ASX automatically suspended shares in Star on Monday morning after the casino operator missed Friday’s deadline for issuing its earnings update for the first half of the financial year. There remains a large amount of uncertainty surrounding the future of Star’s earnings recovery. The pending AUSTRAC fine, eventual outcome of its Bitcoin casino license license and a probable capital raise in the coming months all weigh heavy on its future performance. The collapse in earnings since fiscal 2024 has indicated Star might not have sufficient liquidity to Stay Casino login recovery options Australia afloat amidst near-term earnings headwinds, the AUSTRAC fine and equity contributions to redevelopment. With a $200 million emergency debt facility at a rate of 13.5%, it appears Star may be buying time ahead of a potentially value-dilutive equity raise in fiscal 2025. Queensland is currently the only state where Star holds an exclusive position and consequently the company is throwing substantial amounts of capital (~$3 billion) in ensuring it stays that way.