Fung Steps Up Efforts to Dominate Queensland Casinos

The Chinese billionaire Tony Fung has offered to pay $214 million to buy Reef Casino Trust which owns the only casino in Cairns, Australia. The offer came soon after he proposed a $4.2 billion casino in Cairns which is still awaiting approval from the Queensland state government.

Soon after the announcement shares in Reef Casino rose 44% to a six-year high of $4.10. At present Reef is in discussion with Aquis Casino Acquisitions Pty Ltd (controlled by Fung) after it received a non-binding proposal to buy all the units at a cash price of $4.354 per unit. The offer is priced at a 53% premium to Reef’s closing price last Tuesday.
There are a number of conditions attached to the proposal, such as that Aquis also buys Casino Canberra which is associated with Reef. Casinos Austria and France’s Accor Group are the biggest holders of the trust and they have both indicated that they will support the proposal unless a better one comes along.

Aquis has reportedly already started meeting with the Queensland and ACT governments regarding the regulatory processes involved.