Crown ready to talk with Blackstone

The troubled Crown Resorts casino group in Australia is now ready to accept a takeover offer from Blackstone, the US private equity group.

Blackstone has upped its offer for the casinos business by A$400m (€253.9m) to a total of A$8.87bn (€5.6bn).

if it goes through then controversial entrepreneur James Packer will be in line for a A$3.1bn (€1.9bn) payday for his 37 per cent of Crown held by his private investment company, Consolidated Press Holdings.

Crown said this week that if Blackstone makes a binding offer at the new price of A$13.10 (€8.3) a share and there are no better offers on the table, then the board would recommend shareholders to accept.

The group has been under mounting political pressure following a damning Royal Commission into its activities, notably evidence of money-laundering.