{"id":18386,"date":"2016-06-15T09:28:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T17:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=18386"},"modified":"2018-12-20T08:56:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T16:56:31","slug":"the-perils-of-packer-straub-misses-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-perils-of-packer-straub-misses-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"The perils of Packer; Straub misses deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been another hiccup in the Alon<\/strong> saga, as billionaire James Packer<\/strong> is restructuring his Crown Resorts<\/strong> portfolio “to shield his Australian assets from a prolonged downturn in the Chinese gambling hub” of Macao<\/strong>, according to Bloomberg<\/em>. Packer’s share of Nobu<\/strong>, the Alon site and British casino operator Aspers Group<\/strong> will all be spun off into a new entity<\/a>, as will be $2 billion worth of shares in Melco Crown Entertainment<\/strong>. The move is, simply put, an effort to protect the value of Crown’s Australian casinos from the effects of Macao’s recession, where profits are a sixth of what they were three years ago and which has seen Crown’s share price wither 30% over two years.<\/p>\n

Lest you think this means curtains for Alon, Las Vegas<\/strong> developments are assured of a “reasonable-sized war chest.” As for what will remain under the Crown banner, market strategist Evan Lucas<\/strong> told Bloomberg<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cThe Australian assets are humming along nicely enough, but you would not describe them as a great growth story.\u201d Crown will retain Aspinalls<\/strong> casino in London<\/strong>, Internet casino CrownBet<\/strong>, a megaresort project in Sydney<\/strong>, and casinos in Melbourne<\/strong> and Perth<\/strong>. The company plans to channel all profits directly to its shareholders, which makes one wonder where development capital will be derived — although that could be a moot point if Packer goes forward with his plan to take Crown private. Talks are said to be ongoing.<\/p>\n

* Penn National Gaming<\/strong>‘s racino in Massachusetts<\/strong> hasn’t been open long enough for year-over-year comparisons but revenue at Plainridge Park<\/strong> is growing sequentially. Unlike all other gaming markets we’ve surveyed (and a few we haven’t), Massachusetts’ lone racino was up 1% last month. Coin-in was flat but Plainridge grossed $13.5 million, which works out to an impressive $348\/slot\/day, validating Penn’s claim that it is the highest-grossing facility (per machine) in its stable. Penn has been chafing at reports in the Boston<\/strong> papers which implied the casino was doing poorly, which may explain why it is starting to give Wall Street<\/strong> monthly numbers, going public in a different sense of the phrase.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Glenn Straub<\/strong>‘s hastily conceived reopening of Revel<\/strong> is now a day-to-day proposition. He had planned to open 900 hotel rooms today but it won’t happen until tomorrow at the earliest, more likely Friday<\/a>. No casino operator has been named, although Straub says one has been selected — and is enjoying keeping people guessing who it is. The megaresort is still crawling with construction workers and equipment — hardly the atmosphere for a reboot of Atlantic City<\/strong>‘s most troubled gaming property. It doesn’t have a liquor license and its new name — part of a\u00a0vaguely Asian retheming — is being kept a secret, which Straub thinks raises interest but merely sows confusion.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019d want to check in until we get a chance to clean it up tomorrow,\u201d Straub conceded. Even at Straub’s penny-ante purchase price of $82 million, return on investment looks like anything but a slam-dunk and Revel may ultimately be a real-estate play. Straub himself has sent conflicting signals <\/a>as to whether he’s in it for the long haul or not.<\/p>\n

Among the hurdles still to be cleared are 195 hours of elevator inspection (Revel has 39 elevators). At least Straub can take comfort in having inherited a property in near-pristine condition.\u00a0\u201cThe rooms look like someone slept there last night,\u201d said City Councilman Kaleeem Shabazz<\/strong>. Still, as Straub concedes, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019d want to be here on vacation if you can\u2019t get a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been another hiccup in the Alon saga, as billionaire James Packer is restructuring his Crown Resorts portfolio “to shield his Australian assets from a prolonged downturn in the Chinese gambling hub” of Macao, according to Bloomberg. Packer’s share of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,103,185,22,37,96,189,112,93,69,157],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18386"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23149,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18386\/revisions\/23149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}