Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Casino And Gaming Stock Report: Australia And New Zealand, by Greg Tingle - 5th November 2011

Profiles

Kerry Packer James Packer Crown Casino Crown Limited Burswood Entertainment Complex The Star Echo Entertainment Australian Casinos Australia New Zealand News Financial News Casino News Poker News Entertainment News


Australian land based casinos continue their entertainment push, with big name celebrities and more expensive casino re-vamps in the works. The share market continues to react to the political hotbed that is the Aussie casino and gambling industry. Southern neighbour, New Zealand, is also prone to gaming being quite the punching bag. Can't wait to the next election. How about you?

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.8 percent to 4,321.3 at the close of trading in Sydney. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.6 percent to 3,301.22 in Wellington.

Echo Entertainment Group Ltd. (EGP AU) rose 1.3 percent to A$3.83 after the owner of four Australian casinos had its rating raised to “hold” from “sell” by Adam Alexander, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Australia Pty.

Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd. (SKC NZ) rose 0.3 percent to NZ$3.40 after the New Zealand casino owner agreed a NZ$185 million ($144 million) seven-year banking facility to repay U.S. private placement debt of around NZ$250 million.

Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. (TAH AU) declined 0.7 percent to A$2.80 after Australia’s biggest owner of betting shops was cut to “sell” from “hold” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which said earnings may stall in the next two years on higher license costs and a "lack of positive catalysts."

The Late News...

European gaming giant Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, along with PKR and Virgin Games, are all understood to be keen to officially enter the Australian market. Bwin.Party has done some good warm up work on the political and business side, including now offering online poker players to win a seat at James Packer's annual poker championship in Melbourne 'Aussie Millions'. The Media Man agency has been filing regular reports here and on portals such as Casino News Media, Gambling911 and Poker News Daily are following suit. Mr Packer is understood to be pleased with the lead up news stories on the 2012 'Aussie Millions', at a time when Crown appear to be welcoming any balanced and especially positive coverage of Crown with open arms. Sydney's 'The Star' is also having a poker tourney, with much less fanfare than that of Crown. Any would be James Bond poker players out there? Comon' sport, try your luck and tell 'em the Media Man agency sent you.

*the writer owns shares in Crown Limited
*the writer is a member of The Star's 'Absolute Rewards' program

Websites

Crown Casino

Echo Entertainment

The Star

Media Man News

Casino News Media

Website Network

Media Man Int

Media Man

Media Man News

Media Man Entertainment

Casino News Media

Global Gaming Directory