Packer and Brazil, his long-time friend and investment partner, got back together in October 2019, setting up a private equity fund called 2B Investments in partnership with UniSuper and fellow Rich Lister Kerry Stokes. While Crown’s predicament will weigh on Packer’s Rich List performance, there has been better news in the other half of his fortune – ironically involving former Crown director Ben Brazil.īrazil’s 2009 to 2017 stint on Crown’s board and corporate governance committee was not spared by Bergin, who found he contributed to the gambling giant’s “ineffectual” oversight.
Packer was a likely seller of Crown shares anyway (he said himself during his grilling by the inquiry that he owned too much) but the lack of a control premium for prospective buyers could put further pressure on Crown’s shares, according to Morningstar analyst Angus Hewitt. However, none of the analysts had taken into account a scenario where Packer is forced to sell down his 37 per cent stake in Crown.īergin did not directly recommend this, but with an eye to Packer’s controlling influence in Crown borne out by her inquiry, she recommended that NSW’s casino laws be changed so that no single shareholder can hold more than a 10 per cent interest in a casino licensee without first being approved by the state’s casino regulator. UBS reaffirmed its “buy” rating and maintained a 12-month price target of $10. Morningstar was less pessimistic than Macquarie on Wednesday, retaining its long-term “fair value” price for Crown at $10.70. Under Macquarie’s worst-case scenario, his fortune would shrink closer to $4.5 billion, enough for 18th on last year’s list. He was ranked 13th in 2020 with a $4.7 billion fortune, based on an early September Crown share price of $9.05.
However, a divorce settlement with second wife Erica Baxter, a 2016 division of assets with sister Gretel (which left her with outperformers like 7.3 million shares in US property portal Zillow), and an underperforming Crown share price have since pushed Packer further down the list every year. The stock traded as high as $17.60 in January 2014, when Packer was ranked third on the Rich List with a $7.1 billion fortune, little changed from when he topped the list in 20, when he inherited the media assets of his late father, Kerry. One forecast has James Packer’s Crown Resorts stake being worth $500 million less than before the Bergin report.Ĭrown’s shares have not traded that low since April 2020, just after COVID-19 restrictions had forced the company to shut its Melbourne and Perth casinos. Macquarie Equities thinks they will fall further and reduced its target price from $11.00 to $8.30 on Wednesday on the assumption that the reforms Bergin recommended would delay the start of gambling at Barangaroo by two years.
Once Australia’s wealthiest person, James Packer will struggle to make the top 20 of this year’s Financial Review Rich List if the worst forecasts for the share price of his major asset, Crown Resorts, are realised.Īfter commissioner Patricia Bergin’s explosive report to the NSW gaming regulator on Tuesday, which deemed Crown Resorts unsuitable to operate the casino at the heart of its $2 billion Barangaroo project in Sydney, Crown’s shares tumbled 3.4 per cent to $9.81 on Wednesday.
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