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Crown cashes in Macau chips
Crown Resorts has sold its interest in Melco Resorts & Entertainment back to the company.
Tom Lodewyke
Firms: Ashurst (Crown Resorts Limited); Latham & Watkins (Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited); White & Case (underwriters: Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., UBS Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC)
Value: $1.34 billion
Area: M&A, equity capital markets
Key players: Ashurst corporate partner Phil Breden (pictured) and finance partner Jamie Ng led the team advising Crown.
Deal significance: Crown has divested its holding in MRE through its subsidiary Crown Asia Investments Pty Ltd. MRE bought back the 165.3 million ordinary shares for $1.34 billion.
The deal means that Crown has completely exited its investment in MRE and the Macau market, according to a statement from Ashurst.
MRE concurrently launched an offering of 27,769,248 American depositary shares (ADSs) and 81,995,799 ordinary shares, pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The underwriters purchased 15,769,248 ADSs for resale in an underwritten offering and 81,995,799 ordinary shares were delivered to Melco Leisure and Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of Melco.
UBS Securities LLC also purchased 12,000,000 ADSs pursuant to the offering, which will be tendered from time to time after the offering.
