Star Entertainment Sells 50 Percent Stake in Brisbane Casino to Avoid Collapse

_{Star Entertainment sells its 50% stake in the Brisbane casino to Hong Kong partners. (Image: Star Entertainment)}

Australian casino firm Star Entertainment announced it will be able to continue operations as normal—at least for now—after reaching a deal to sell its stake in a Brisbane casino destination to its partners in Hong Kong.

Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium Enterprises are paying a combined $53 million ($33.4 million) in exchange for Star’s 50 percent stake in the Brisbane project. Star will also acquire the Hong Kong firms’ two-thirds stake in the recently expanded Star Gold Coast complex as a part of the agreement.

Star Still Looking for Larger Refinancing Deal

Star was to receive the first payment of A$35 million ($22.1 million) on Friday. Those funds will come at the end of a week in which Star was on the verge of running out of money. 

Multiple media reports cited insiders at the gaming firm as suggesting the company might only have enough funds to last through Friday. 

Star’s directors refused to sign off on accounts that were necessary to meet financial reporting obligations, causing the company’s shares to be suspended from trading on the Australian Securities Exchange since Monday.

The new influx of cash might only be enough to keep Star afloat for a matter of months. However, Star has also said that it has been offered a refinancing proposal that might provide it with debt funding of up to A$940 million ($593.2 million). That would include an A$250 million ($157.8 million) bridge loan—money that Star executives believe could give them the time to right the ship.

“While there is more to do to have access to the funding from the bridge facility and the refinancing proposal, these initiatives, together with the agreement to exit Destination Brisbane Consortium and expect our operations at the Gold Coast, improve our capacity to have a viable future,” Star CEO Steve McCann said, via Reuters.

The deal, which would essentially give Star full control of the Gold Coast casino, while Far East and Chow Tai Fook take the entirety of the Brisbane complex, is still contingent on regulatory approval from the Queensland state government.

Regulatory Scandals Shake Formerly Successful Casino Firm

Star has faced a growing number of inquiries into its operations recently. In 2022, senior counsel Adam Bell of the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC) released a review of the company that found Star unsuitable to hold a casino license due to failures to follow anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism regulations.

The NICC appointed Nicholas Weeks to oversee the operations at The Star Sydney, but a second release from Bell in September 2024 found that the casino was still failing to meet its regulatory obligations.

An inquiry held in August 2024 led to revelations that other Star officials were looking for ways to oust Weeks, potentially via a shareholder class-action lawsuit.

As a result of these and other controversies, Star has seen almost $A4 billion ($2.52 billion) wiped away from its market capitalization since 2021. The company is now valued at about A$316 million ($199.4 million), with shares selling for just A$0.11 ($0.07) when trading halted on Monday.