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# Blackstone offers $6 billion to buy Australian casino operator Crown Resorts

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Blackstone offers $6 billion to buy Australian casino operator Crown Resorts
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SYDNEY — Blackstone Group Inc. made a takeover offer for Australian casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd. valued at $6 billion, as regulators investigate Crown’s business practices and threaten to rescind its casinos licenses.

The U.S. investment firm has offered 11.85 Australian dollars, or the equivalent of $9.15, a share for Crown, a 20% premium to its closing share price last week, Crown said Monday. The deal is conditional on Australian gambling regulators allowing Blackstone to own and operate Crown casinos in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Crown
CWN,

+21.10%

said its board hasn’t yet decided whether to back the deal and will start assessing Blackstone’s offer. Blackstone
BX,

-0.77%

,
which already owns a nearly 10% stake in Crown, confirmed that it submitted the proposal. Blackstone already has real-estate assets in Australia and a gaming footprint in other countries, including the Cosmopolitan casino and resort in Las Vegas.

The offer comes at a precarious time for Crown. Last month, an inquiry set up by the gambling regulator in New South Wales state determined Crown isn’t suitable to operate a new casino on Sydney’s waterfront.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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