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Starwood advised on Blackstone's $8.9bn acquisition of Crown Resorts
Sydney-based law firm Addisons has provided gambling-regulatory advice to Starwood Capital Group (Starwood) in connection with Blackstone's $8.9 billion acquisition of Crown Resorts Limited (Crown).
Jess Feyder
Firm: Addisons (Starwood); Allen & Overy (Starwood, regarding financing).
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Deal: Addisons provided gambling regulatory advice to Starwood Capital Group (Starwood), and other lenders in connection with their financing of Blackstone’s $8.9 billion acquisition of Crown.
Value: $8.9bn.
Area: Corporate.
Key players: The Addisons team was led by partner Jamie Nettleton and senior associate Shanna Protic Dib of the gambling law group and was supported by partner Rob Kerr and solicitor Donna Kwon.
Deal significance: This is the largest transaction to have occurred involving the Australian casino sector.
Addisons advised Starwood on all Australian gambling-regulatory aspects of the financing arrangements for the acquisition.
The transaction was subject to regulatory oversight, since the acquisition related to the leading Australian casino operator licensed in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
Jamie Nettleton, Addisons’ Gambling Law Partner, commented: “Addisons is pleased to have assisted Starwood on the gambling law implications of Starwood’s financing of the acquisition of Crown by Blackstone.
“This involved advising Starwood in understanding the gambling regulatory regime applying to Crown and its casinos, which is contained in a number of laws and governmental agreements across three states.”
The acquisition was financed by Starwood through a $5.4 billion facility and by affiliated Blackstone debt funds. The financing was supported by a $500 million working capital facility arranged by Deutsche Bank.
Global firm, Allen & Overy (A&O) advised Starwood on the financing of the acquisition by entities owned by funds managed or advised by Blackstone and its affiliates of Crown. The A&O team was led by London partner, David Varne and Sydney partner, David Walter.
Mr Varne commented: “We were thrilled to advise our longstanding client, Starwood, on this landmark transaction.
“It is one of the biggest Australian public M&A deals of the year and, given the three key Australian casino assets, the real estate financing angle was one of a kind.”
Mr Walter added: “This transaction demonstrates the continued appetite of both alternative credit providers such as Starwood and private equity funds like Blackstone, to invest in the Asia Pacific region. We are seeing an increasing trend of investing into Australia among these key players.”
