Star Entertainment gets funding lifeline as it ships 50% stake in casino to Far East Consortium

It’s been quite the seven days for casino group Star Entertainment, which first failed to file its half year accounts a week ago, causing trading in its shares to be halted. Despite hopes of a resolution that day, a statement on Monday suggested dire times ahead with its 8,000 staff due to be paid on Wednesday.

There now appears to be some hope on the horizon, in the short term at least with this morning’s news of a deal being reached with the Hong Kong investors, Far East Consortium, which has confirmed a deal for a 50% stake in Star’s new Brisbane casino.

The deal, filed at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon (Sydney time), is worth around $53 million and has been in the pipeline since mid-February.

The Far East Consortium, along with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises own the other two thirds of the Queen’s Wharf development in Brisbane, according to a report on ABC.

The deal will see Star acquire the other two thirds of the development at Queen’s Wharf from the Hong Kong parties, along with the cash injection.

At the the time of publication, trading in Star Entertainment shares is still paused, although prior to the halt, shares were trading at just 11 cents per share, down from a historical high of over $5 back in 2018.

We are still waiting for Star to confirm the deal to the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange), but this is expected to be imminent.

The Star group has found itself in ongoing legal battles with financial authorities of late, which are suspected to have caused a drop player confidence having been accused by corporate watchdog ASIC of, “fail(ing) to give sufficient focus to the risk of money laundering and criminal associations”.

Featured Image: The Queen’s Wharf development

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