Star Entertainment holds administrators at bay with $50m Brisbane casino sale

Star Entertainment has now sealed a long-awaited deal with two investment partners in its newly opened Brisbane casino to sell off the complex and take a step back from imminent financial collapse.

In a rollercoaster day for shareholders of the beleaguered gaming group, Star broke almost a week of radio silence on Friday morning to announce it had not been able to reach terms with fellow Queen’s Wharf development partners Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium to buy its half share of the casino for $50 million.

Star — which also has gaming hubs on the Gold Coast and at its flagship complex in Sydney — has for months been scrambling for cash to resolve a liquidity crises that has threatened to tip it into administration.

Friday’s admission that a deal could not be reached painted an increasingly bleak picture for the future of Star and thousands of staff.

But hours later come media reports that a sale agreement had been signed with the Hong Kong-based partners.

Star was yet to make an announcement to the ASX.

The new comes just a day after it was revealed Star — which holds more than $400m of debt — may have been closing in on the desperately needed sale to repair its battered balance sheet.

It has already been forced to sell off the conference centre section of its Sydney complex to stay afloat after revealing it only had $79m cash available at the end of December.

Noting the recent media speculation in a two-paragraph statement to investors, Star on Friday confirmed the ongoing talks with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium but said it “has been unable to reach an agreement with its joint venture partners to date.”

It was also rumoured that Star may have found an unlikely white knight in a Queensland coal magnate.

Media reports on Friday said coal miner Chris Wallin — boss of the private QCoal group — had offered a $200m bridging loan, but it is understood that offer was rejected by the board.

Star’s shares have been suspended from trade on the Australian Securities Exchange after it failed to lodge its half-year results last Friday.

The company said it could not sign off on the accounts without a bailout.

Putting its share on hold last week, Star repeated a warning made early in February that without a rescue deal to pull in cash it may not be able to continue as a viable business.

Its shares later returned to trade and fell more than 17 per cent to 11¢, valuing the company at just $307 million.