Blackstone Announces Investment Into Crown Melbourne Upgrade

Blackstone Group, the private equity company that has acquired Crown Resorts, the biggest casino operator in Australia, has announced that it is ready to invest large amounts of money into the upgrade of Crown Melbourne.

The announcement was made by John Gray, the President of Blackstone Group, in an interview with The Australian. The United States company purchased Crown Resorts for 8.9 billion Australian dollars in 2022 after the Australian company ran into several problems with regulators in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

John Gray revealed during the aforementioned interview that he believed Crown Resorts could be transformed into one of the world’s leading casino operators during the coming years, but for that to happen the company would need to invest into its operation in Melbourne.

The Blackstone president described Crown Melbourne as ““truly one of the kind, given its scale” and added that the company’s main objective is to “invest significant capital” into the flagship venue in order to enhance it.

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John Gray has also spoken of Crown’s recent regulatory issues as the operator was found unsuitable to hold casino licenses in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth but granted two years to turn things around.

The Blackstone president admitted that “there was a lot that wasn’t done right” but promised that under the new ownership Crown Resorts would “operate at the highest standard from a compliance standpoint.”

Gray has made a comparison between Crown Resorts and The Cosmopolitan, the famous casino located on the Las Vegas Strip. The struggling property was bought by Blackstone in 2014 for 1.7 billion dollars, revamped and then sold for 5.7 billion dollars.

“If you went back to that (Cosmopolitan) story, it was a company that had been built, foreclosed on and had a number of staff issues and needed capital to complete it,” Gray said. “And we went in, we brought in a lot of capital and hardware, but then software in terms of restaurants and entertainment, a great management team.”

That is what the new owner is trying to do with Crown Melbourne, Crown Sydney and Crown Perth, with the confidence that the three Australian casinos can recover their appeal and help drive tourism to the three cities.

Source:

“Blackstone preparing to “invest significant capital” into Crown Melbourne upgrade“, asgam.com, June 9, 2023.