Casino giant Star Entertainment’s bid to save a deal to sell its stake in Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf precinct has hit a standstill, with the embattled publicly listed company revealing on Monday it will be forced to cough up nearly $37 million if the sale falls through.
The gaming group, which was on the brink of financial ruin for many months earlier this year, secured a deal in March to sell its stake in the glitzy riverside precinct to Hong Kong investors.
Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium, who each own 25 per cent in Queen’s Wharf, last week threatened to walk away from the deal that includes them buying 50 per cent of the gaming, hotel and retail complex as well as the Treasury hotel and carpark.
The plan is for the Queen’s Wharf casino complex in Brisbane to be owned by HK investors Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium, but that deal has hit a standstill.Credit: Glenn Campbell
Ahead of the looming deadline for the deal to fall over on Monday, Star released an update to the ASX revealing the parties involved had agreed to extend the negotiations to the end of the month.
The company said it will continue to discuss terms of the deal, with a sticking point understood to be Star’s bid to continue operating the casino within the precinct.
Loading
If the groups fail to reach an agreement by July 31, the deal will be terminated and Star will be forced to pay $10 million for proceeds already received from the Hong Kong investors and a further $26.5 million in equity contributions paid since details of the deal were announced in March.
Before Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium were unveiled as the prospective buyers of the company’s stake in Queen’s Wharf, Star had been on the brink of collapse for many months and in desperate need of a funding injection to stay afloat.
Star said on Monday the parties had agreed to a new set of principles and there would be “certain departures from the heads of agreement”.
Read the full article here
