Crown Resorts Limited is doubtlessly one of Australia’s biggest entertainment and gaming groups which back in April of last year enjoyed a massive market capitalization of more than A$8.7 billion. This comes as no surprise because Crown Resorts Limited owns and manages two of Australia-based leading entertainment and gambling complexes including Crown Perth and Crown Melbourne.
The company emerged on the scene in 2007 when PBL or Publishing and Broadcasting Limited all of its gaming assets to Crown Resorts Limited. Back in December that same year, Crown Resorts Limited purchased CCR for around $1.75 billion. While this business deal was ended two years later in March, the company went on buying an almost 25 percent stake in the firm for around $370 million in addition to paying around $50 million for terminating the previous contract.
Back in 2008, the company attempted to enter the ever-growing Las Vegas-based market by purchasing a 19 percent stake in prominent Fontainebleau Resorts, but this business move resulted in a massive loss the next year. In the following years, the company invested in Crown Sri Lanka as well as partnered with Betfair Australia and acquired several smaller businesses. Despite being on the right route, some of the company’s major shareholders expressed their concerns about the company’s annual meeting which was held last week.
Voting Against the Company’s Yearly Remuneration
As reported by The Guardian news outlet, the company’s annual meeting saw several of its major shareholders voting against the company’s yearly remuneration report. It was also reported that several of the major company’s investors questioned the firm’s senior executive about recent scandals. As reported by The Guardian, this annual meeting saw around 17% of the company’s investors voting against its yearly remuneration even though this was mainly supported by James Packer who owns around 37% of the company.
As dictated by local laws, firms including Crown Resorts Limited must change their boards in the case of their major shareholders turning down a yearly remuneration two times by votes of 25% or more. The same newspaper which shared this news also claims that the Crown Resorts Limited’s shareholders used the annual meeting to question the company’s board about recent allegations of illegal visas for foreign customers in addition to other scandals related to organized crime.
The company’s investors also interrogated the firm’s leadership about the recently proposed business deal which would see James Pecker selling almost 20% of his stake in the company to Asian casino giant Melco Resorts and Entertainment Limited. In addition to these issues, the company is also facing another problem as Crown Melbourne workers had planned a two-hour strike for Friday.
The Crown Melbourne Workers Planning to Walk Off the Job
As reported several days ago, workers at the Crown Melbourne facility are set to walk off their job positions for at least two hours on Friday concerning the company’s new business deal. According to one report by The Sydney Morning Herald news outlet, the company’s employees who are members of the United Voice group including its security guards, hotel workers, dealers as well as bar and restaurant staff at Crown Melbourne will walk off their job for two hours.
It was also reported that the workers may extend their two-hour strike to last up to twenty-four hours. This move represented the very first strike at the venue in sixteen years. Workers will decide on Friday whether to continue with their strike campaign or to go back to work. The United Voice group including workers of Crown Melbourne have been involved in a series of negotiations with the operator for almost six months in order to obtain an EBA or enterprise bargaining agreement. However, the Sydney-based company has not provided any substantive offer, not yet which is one of the reasons for the strike.
