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Blackstone Increases Bid for Embattled Crown to $6.2 Billion

  • Crown has been found unfit to run Melbourne, Sydney casinos
  • Takeover would give billionaire James Packer a clean exit
The Crown Resorts casino and entertainment complex in Melbourne, Australia.

The Crown Resorts casino and entertainment complex in Melbourne, Australia.

Photographer: James Bugg/Bloomberg
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Blackstone Group Inc. has increased its offer for Crown Resorts Ltd. to A$8.5 billion ($6.2 billion), betting it can rehabilitate the embattled casino owner which has been left reeling from a series of scandals that placed its future in doubt. 

The U.S. buyout firm’s latest offer values Crown shares at A$12.50 each, a 26% premium to Thursday’s closing price. Crown, which rejected two previous bids as too low, hasn’t yet formed a view on the merits of the new proposal, it said in a statement Friday. The stock jumped 17% to A$11.55 in afternoon trading in Sydney.