James Packer has quit his role as casino company Crown’s chairman, but will remain on the board of the company.
Mr Packer is Crown’s majority shareholder, and the company said it intends to appoint him as a senior executive director.
The billionaire will also remain co-chairman of the company’s subsidiaries Melco Crown Entertainment in Asia (mainly Macau) and Alon Resort in Las Vegas.
Mr Packer said that, far from reducing his focus on Crown, the company remains his “number one business priority and passion”.
“I will continue to drive key projects, including our joint business in Asia and our planned resort in Las Vegas,” he said in a statement.
“I will also be working to improve Crown’s online strategies, an area where I believe we could be doing better and a platform which will provide great potential for global growth in the future.”
Fellow Crown director and prominent media buyer Harold Mitchell said he understands that family reasons are behind Mr Packer’s decision to step down as chairman.
“So a decision on his part to stay actively involved as executive director but not chair the board, and not unusual, I saw Kerry Packer do this in many of his companies.”
Mr Packer’s replacement as Crown chairman will be Robert Rankin.
Crown Resorts’ annual profit has slumped more than 40 per cent as the mining downturn affected its Perth casino and weak trading conditions in Macau hurt its joint-venture operations there.
Crown’s annual net profit for the 2014/15 financial year fell 41.3 per cent to $385 million.
Crown’s “normalised” net profit, which excludes one-off items and variations to the theoretical win rate against high-rolling gamblers, was down 17.9 per cent to $525.5 million.
“Overall, the results for Crown’s portfolio of businesses were mixed,” chief executive Rowen Craigie said on Thursday.
Crown said earnings and main floor gaming revenue from its flagship Melbourne casino were pleasing, but results from Perth were subdued, reflecting the mining downturn in Western Australia.
The Melbourne and Perth casinos generated similar growth rates in the VIP gambling business, but there was a stark difference in the results from the main gaming floor, food and beverage operations, and hotel rooms.
The Melbourne casino benefited from increased marketing and promotion, additional gaming facilities, and increased visits, partly generated by Melbourne’s recent sporting events.
Weak market conditions in Macau resulted in Crown’s share of the profits from joint-venture operations falling by $166 million, or 57.6 per cent.
The Macau gaming market has declined because of China’s weaker economy, a crackdown on corruption, unfavourbale changes to travel visas, and smoking restrictions on casino floors.
Mr Craigie did not speculate on when the Macau gaming market would bounce back.
But it remained the world’s most important and exciting gaming market over the longer term because the Chinese middle class were becoming increasingly affluent and were being allowed to travel more.
Crown’s Macau joint-venture, Melco Crown Entertainment, is expected to open its second large-scale resort in Macau, Studio City, on October 27, 2015.
Crown said its VIP gambling business generated strong growth on the back of lower taxes and a boost to international marketing.
Crown also said it had acquired a 60 per cent stake in on-line social gaming developer DGN Games – based in Austin, Texas – in July 2015 for $US27.5 million.
Crown said DGN was in the top 15 global social gaming products.
“It’s early days for us, but we think the social gaming space is a relatively high growth market,” Crown chief financial officer Ken Barton said.
James Packer has quit his role as casino company Crown’s chairman
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