Nick Tabakoff | August 27, 2009 The Australian: (excerpt below):
JAMES Packer's massive restructure of his empire will escalate today when his listed Crown gaming group unveils writedowns of $1.5 billion as part of a scorched earth policy on its troubled US casino assets.
The Australian understands most of Crown's US assets will be written down to zero, in a move that could be a precursor to a bid by Mr Packer to privatise the stockmarket-listed company.The move will come less than 24 hours after Mr Packer's listed media group, Consolidated Media, announced a 10 per cent share buyback immediately after dumping its entire 26 per cent stake in online job ads group Seek, raising $441 million. The buyback, announced well after the close of trade last night, is seen as a move to block a takeover bid by Kerry Stokes's Seven Network.
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The company has already valued its stake in another North American casino group, Gateway, at zero. But the status of a loan of $166m by Crown to Gateway is also believed to be under scrutiny.
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