Genting ...Aug12

Australian casino group Crown Ltd, owned by billionaire James Packer, hopes to use the casino licence of its rival Echo Entertainment Group in order to go ahead with a planned luxury hotel development in Sydney.

Crown sealed a deal to develop a new hotel and casino resort in Sydney at the harbourfront Barangaroo development, as part of its push to build a global brand in the VIP gaming market and attract more Asian high-rollers. However, the exclusive casino licence for Sydney is held by smaller competitor Echo until 2019.

To succeed at the Barangaroo site, Crown would either need to convince Echo to share its licence, perhaps via a joint venture, or convince the state government to issue a second casino licence. Ultimately some sort of deal will be struck, more likely on the sharing of the licence.

So far Crown has bought a 10 percent stake in Echo and applied to regulators to increase it to 25 percent. Crown successfully led a push to oust Echo's previous chairman.

The economics of building a luxury of hotel in Australia is just not good without cross-subsidisation from gaming.

Crown is seen as unlikely to make a full bid for Echo because it would financially stretch its balance sheet, already under pressure from capital spending at its Melbourne and Perth casinos before any development starts in Sydney.

Asian casino operator Genting has also taken a 10 percent stake in Echo.

Sources say Packer would be open to an alliance with Genting to further his ambitions in Australia but it is not clear how an alliance would play out.