Regulator To Consider Sydney Resort Again Following Melco Purchase
James Packer and Lawrence Ho have been business partners before and could be again.
The New South Wales gambling regulator has said that following the purchase by Melco Resorts of 19.9% of Australian Operator Crown Resorts, it will review the approval it gave the company into its building a casino resort in Sydney valued at $1.5 billion.
It was back in 2014 that the regulator approved the building for Crown Resorts of the integrated resort in Sydney, but that was under the agreement that Crown and its boss James Packer did not business in the resort with Stanley Ho who at the time was under investigation in both Australia and the US for links to organised crime.
However Melco is run by Lawrence Ho and is the son of Stanley Ho, this has brought into question by the regulator is approval on the resort in Sydney.
The sale of James Packers 19.9% stake in Crown from its original 47% stake brings into question how long Packer has with the company in terms of investment. It also seems to many analysts that the move by Melco is a way of blocking any kind of purchase by Wynn who were only recently said to be looking at acquiring all of Crown Resorts.
However now that Lawrence Ho and his company that already had a strong relationship with Crown and James Packer before looks to expand into Australia, will the regulator look at this again with approving Lawrence Ho and Melco?
Many gaming observers believe that Lawrence Ho and his company are far enough separated from his father and his company not to have any problems with approval. The big question is will Melco move to acquire more shares and look to acquire Crown Resorts outright?
It has already been mooted that Melco by moving into more international developments gives them an edge into the forthcoming licensing for Japan, having shown they truly are an international operator.
That is all for the future but right now all eyes will be on the regulator approving the deal and Sydney resort, should that go through fine will Melco then move to acquire all of Crown?
