James Packed Sells Crown Resort Shares to Reduce Stake to 48%

James Packer, the owner of Australia’s Crown Resorts Ltd, has reduced his stake in the company to less than half.

His private company Consolidated Press holdings Pty Ltd sold about 4.8% of its stake for AU$350 million to other investors to reduce its stake to 48% from 53%. The company said that the move was part of its financing strategy but it did not elaborate on the reason for the sale or identify the buyers. There are rumours that the sale was necessary for Packer to deal with a debt after reaching a settlement with his sister over the Packer family’s asset portfolio.

Packer has been steadily reducing his involvement in Crown over the past year. He has also quit as chairman of Melco Crown Entertainment and said that he wants to concentrate on a new Crown casino development in Sydney and an IT Venture capital business in Israel.