{"id":45658,"date":"2017-02-23T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T22:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=45658"},"modified":"2017-02-23T11:37:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T19:37:13","slug":"crown-resorts-vip-business-nosedives-china-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-vip-business-nosedives-china-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown Resorts VIP Business Nosedives After China Arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\">\n<p class=\"p2\">Crown Resort\u2019s VIP revenue plummeted 45.3 percent in the first half of the year, according to the company\u2019s first earnings call since 18 of its staff were arrested in China for alleged \u201cgambling crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_45659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45659\" data-style=\"width: 316px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45659\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/aa29e50202d5955244368c2eaeae8333.jpg\" alt=\"John Alexander to Become Crown Resorts CEO, as VIP revenues fall\" width=\"316\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/aa29e50202d5955244368c2eaeae8333.jpg 316w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/aa29e50202d5955244368c2eaeae8333-142x107.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/aa29e50202d5955244368c2eaeae8333-147x110.jpg 147w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-45659\"class=\"text-description\">John Alexander, who will assume the role of Crown Resorts CEO, said that his company was in a \u201cholding pattern\u201d over its operations in China but is seeing the situation as a \u201cpause rather than a defeat.\u201d (Image: Post Online Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p2\">The drop in Chinese high-roller business drove down overall normalized profit by 9.1 percent on the corresponding year, the company said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The staff members were detained in October 13\u00a0and 14 in at least four cities across the country, apparently for marketing Crown\u2019s services in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-casino-resorts-take-the-pot-during-golden-week\">Macau<\/a> to VIP\u2019s on the mainland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Despite a deadline for charges to be filed under Chinese law having long passed, they remain under arrest, without charges, at the Number One Detention Center in Shanghai. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Their fate remains unknown, but during the call Thursday, Crown was at the very least able to offer, for the first time, some clarity about the financial impact of the arrests.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><b>Clarity on China<\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p2\">&#8220;We&#8217;re in a different situation now &#8230; because of what happened in China and we&#8217;re waiting to see how that plays out before we resume traditional marketing in the region,&#8221; said Executive Chairman John Alexander. &#8220;We&#8217;re in a holding pattern.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p2\"><strong>\u201cFrankly, we look at that as a pause rather than a retreat,\u201d he added. \u201cWe are waiting for clarity on China and the details behind that, but no intention to retreat from where we stand in the market.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\">But the arrests prompted the company to rein in its global expansion plans. Shortly afterwards it reduced its stake in Macau through the sale of $1.2 billion-worth of shares back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/melco-crown-calls-sheldon-adelsons-10-billion-bet-on-japan\">Melco Crown<\/a>, the company through which it operates Macau casinos jointly with Lawrence Ho.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">It also initiated a complete shake-up of the board, which had been criticized in the wake of the arrests, with James Packer returning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">On Thursday, it was announced Alexander, a Packer loyalist who was named chairman last month, will also take over the CEO role from Rowen Craigie next week, as the company refocuses on domestic operations.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p2\"><b>Shareholder Lawsuit<\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p2\">Crown Resorts is also facing a class action lawsuit over the arrests, led, on behalf of shareholders, by law firm Maurice Blackburn. It\u2019s their contention that the company knew its VIP strategy in China was risky and it should have communicated this to shareholders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Shortly after the news of the detentions, Crown\u2019s shares\u00a0fell 14 percent in one day, wiping more than $1.3 billion off the company\u2019s market value.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Stock rebounded by 8.9 percent on Thursday, to their highest level since the arrests, following the news that Crown would be paying shareholders a special dividend of 83 Australian cents per share.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crown Resort\u2019s VIP revenue plummeted 45.3 percent in the first half of the year, according to the company\u2019s first earnings call since 18 of its staff were arrested in China for alleged \u201cgambling crimes.\u201d The drop in Chinese high-roller business drove down overall normalized profit by 9.1 percent on the corresponding year, the company said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":45659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,60,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Crown Resorts VIP Business Nosedives After China Arrests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crown resorts said VIP revenues dropped by 45 percent in its first financial report since 18 of its employees were detained in China.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/crown-resorts-vip-business-nosedives-china-arrests\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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