James Packer steps down as chairman of Crown Resorts

James Packer has quit his role as casino company Crown’s chairman, but will remain on the board of the company.

Rankin became the co-chairman of Crown back in November 2014.

‘Given our universal development and dreams, this can be the right opportunity for the business for this tweak.

Profit from Crown’s one-third stake in its Macau-focused Melco Crown Entertainment fell 44.6 percent, the company said.

The former chairman claims even with his departure from Crown, the company will still be his top passion and business priority.

“Crown has a pipeline of resorts globally and this is where the majority of my time will be spent”, Mr Packer said. He considers the online gambling segment one that is to provide his company with “great potential” for a future global growth. “I look forward to working closely with him”, Packer said.

Rankin is a former co-head of corporate banking and securities at Deutsche Bank and singled out Rupert Murdoch as his “business hero” in an Australian Financial Review profile previous year.

Robern Rankin will take Packer’s post.

Crown Resorts added it was optimistic about the long-term prospects of the Macau market, giving as an example the Studio City casino resort on Cotai, scheduled to open on October 27, and which is 60-percent owned by Melco Crown.

“…James may be leaving the chairman’s role, but he will have day-to-day engagement and will be actively involved at board level to ensure we meet our targets and ambitious development goals”.

Gross gaming revenue in the Macau market fell by 26.8% over the past year and in the six months leading up to June declined by 37%.

Crown’s results come a day after Echo Entertainment Group Ltd posted a 59 percent leap in annual net profit on Wednesday but its shares fell as much as five percent on concerns that a busy renovation schedule could bite into the next year’s earnings.

The Melbourne and Perth casinos generated similar growth rates in VIP gambling, but there was a stark difference in the results from the main gaming floor, food and beverage operations, and hotel rooms.

“Crown Sydney is a globally iconic project that will attract hundreds of thousands of tourists to Australia, create jobs, taxes and new revenue for the people of New South Wales”.

Credit Suisse analysts, however, singled out Crown as one of the Australian companies likely to suffer the most from the recent devaluation of the yuan given its exposure to Macau. But it remained the world’s most important and exciting gaming market over the longer term because the Chinese middle class were becoming increasingly affluent and were being allowed to travel more.

In May Crown finalised agreements with the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and Lend Lease to develop the Crown Sydney site at Barangaroo South.