James Packer will have Ken Moelis rustling up interest in Crown.Credit:
In doing so Packer is also signalling that he would undertake an assessment of any offer for Crown independently of the views of the Crown board. It’s a position that makes more sense than his previous statement that he would be guided by the will of Crown’s executive chairman,Helen Coonan.
What is even more interesting about the statement from Packer’s private company,Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH),on Tuesday is his choice of advisor - Moelis Australia.
The Australian Moelis operative spearheading the advice team locally is its joint chief executive Chris Wyke - a deal maker widely considered as one of the sharpest intellects in the business. But Packer’s pick of Moelis is far more likely to have been about getting access to the company’s US founder Ken Moelis - who over the years has been a close and trusted confidant of Packer.
He advised the US casino giant Wynn on its offer for Crown a few years back so would be intimately familiar with the company.
Within US gaming circles,there are few major deals transacted in which Ken Moelis doesn’t play some kind of role. Thus he has taken on an unofficial title of the industry’s advisory king.
While Packer’s statement on Tuesday was made in response to the proposal from Blackstone a few weeks ago to buy Crown at $11.85 per share,it is more likely that CPH has hired the Moelis big guns to take a more active role in ferreting out other offers.
At this point the proposal from Blackstone is sufficiently vague and so highly conditional that it is almost incapable of being considered by the Crown board.