ASX: SGR: Star back on the brink as Brisbane casino deal collapses

Sign Up for Take StockInvestment news, stock ideas, and more, straight to your inbox. The Star is continuing to engage with the Joint Venture Partners and will provide an update if there are any material developments regarding the parties' respective interests in DBC and DGCC. However, Star and its JV partners were "unable to reach agreement on a number of outstanding commercial issues" relating to the deal. Revenues are down, with Star Entertainment reporting an unaudited $270 million in revenue for 4Q FY25, down 31% on 4Q FY24. "[It's] loaded with $650 million of its own debt, is still less than 50 per cent operational and requires hundreds of millions of dollars in additional capital expenditure to complete," Mr Mayne noted.

An American casino operator controlled by a New York hedge fund has joined the opportunists sniffing around embattled Star Entertainment Group, which is on its last legs and desperately seeking a capital injection to avoid administration. The casino operator warned that additional equity may be required as part of the refinancing of the DBC debt facility. Star first entered the deal with its the Hong Kong investors in early March, after months of warnings about its financial future — and prior to the bigger deal struck with Bally's and the Mathiesons. The Australian Financial Review reported that the company had failed to raise the funding required to meet near-term payments, including for payroll, which puts the company at serious risk of running out of cash. After a brief trading halt on Friday morning, Star shares plunged 15.4 per cent to 11¢, valuing the company once worth $5 billion at about $315 million. Star did not name the parties that are expected to provide an offer of financing, but it has confirmed previously that US finance giant Oaktree has tried to buy out Star’s debt from its lenders.

The Queen's Wharf joint venture development in Brisbane commands $2.6 billion of the spending with a 99-year lease and 25-year exclusivity period. Morningstar expects the extensive capital investment in Queensland to weigh on the near-term returns on invested capital. Further, we also believe the capital committed to facilities in Queensland might be disproportionate to the size of the addressable market. The company was forced to suspend its shares from trading on the ASX for weeks while it reviewed the report – which called its integrity to hold a casino license into question – and its implications for company financials.

Star Entertainment has managed to avoid financial collapse for now after signing a deal to sell its stake in Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf casino to its two equity partners along with other assets. Star Entertainment halted trading of its shares on Friday after a state-level casino regulator issued a damning report accusing the group of failing to clean up a culture of money laundering and fraud. Australia’s largest publicly traded casino operator has been temporarily suspended from the country’s stock exchange after failing to lodge its annual financial results. Star chief executive Steve McCann has been negotiating to lock in a different package which would leave the company’s Queen’s Wharf complex in Brisbane with two Hong Kong investors. That deal is backed by alternative asset manager Salter Brothers and includes a $750 million refinancing.

In a late-night update to the ASX on Monday, Star Entertainment revealed Bally’s would pay $100 million by Wednesday to keep the business’s doors open across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney. Let's see what top payout online casino bonuses Australia brokers think of Domino's Pizza shares following the AGM update last week. Motley Fool contributor observed Bronwyn Allen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Star Entertainment said it would remain engaged with its JV partners and would update investors if anything changed. Star Entertainment will remain responsible for its share of future equity contributions to DBC, estimated at $200 million. This is a significant development given that the cash-strapped casino sought to sell the assets to boost its balance sheet.

It since has been selling neighbouring properties in Southbank, bought by Crown when James Packer was still running the outfit. US investment giant Blackstone bought Crown in 2022 for $8.9 billion with grand plans for a refurbishment and expansion, which appears to have come to nought. Investors were spooked by a financial performance that revealed an operation haemorrhaging cash with little prospect of an immediate improvement.

Star investors who got excited on Monday by the left-field emergence of a mystery Macau buyer of the online casino deposit bonus AU 2026’s shares would be wise to curb their enthusiasm. There is nothing about Xingchun Wang’s taking a 5.5 per cent stake that looks like a white knight rescue attempt. Morningstar lowers our Uncertainty Rating from Extreme to very high after the results of the second bell inquiry were passed down. The scrutiny into Star’s suitability to hold a Harvest Buffet Litecoin casino review licence ended in the best online slot bonus plausible outcome that the company could have hoped for. Whilst they are currently deemed unsuitable to hold a casino license, the enquiry ruled that the license need not be revoked entirely. Star’s core asset is The Star Sydney, which at one point was generating ~70% of the group’s earnings as the only casino in Sydney.

ASIC has accused them of not paying sufficient attention to the risks of money laundering and criminal association that have financially crippled the casino operator with massive fines and gambling restrictions on its pokies. The casino operator also remains embroiled in legal challenges, with the financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC seeking a $400 million penalty against the company for alleged money laundering, in a court case that kicked off earlier this month. Star Entertainment’s major Macau-based investor has increased his stake in the company for a second time in a week, with the mystery businessman now owning almost 7 per cent of the struggling bitcoin casino secure crypto transactions 2026 operator. More than 8000 jobs hang in the balance as teetering casino operator Star Entertainment is on the brink of financial collapse, with its board in last-ditch talks late on Friday to find the cash needed to keep the company afloat.

Xingchun Wang has spent more than $38 million buying shares in Star, which last week warned it was running out of money and could be weeks away from collapse if it did not secure additional financing. The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Now the chances of losing it all have been turned back onto one of Australia's biggest casino operators. "Traditionally, probity checks have taken many months for new operators in casinos across the different state jurisdictions," Mr Jones said. Swinburne University law and corporate governance specialist Helen Bird told ABC's News Channel it seemed "more than likely" the company would tip into voluntary administration.