Increasingly I think that the outcome for Crown in Melbourne (which is the most important of the three inquiries) will be worse than a probation period. The reasons for this include that the Annual Report's attempts at describing the "turnaround story" are amateurish. This suggests to me that they still don't have the right people in there, or maybe they do and everyone is scrambling for a role in the new world order and not paying attention to details while they avoid offending someone. The second is that the Annual Report discloses that they threw millions of dollars at the former CEO and others as they left. If Crown was genuine about turning itself around, they'd be in court with any former executives who oversaw huge money laundering and the arrest of management in China. By paying them their full entitlements, Crown is saying that they did nothing wrong. They were just unlucky to get caught. The third is that in hindsight the "hard-hitting Bergin inquiry" has been shown to have been anything but, with it promoting the curious idea that H Coonan, who was involved for about as long as anyone and was knee-deep in it all, was somehow the shining light on the path to redemption. Finkelstein will be hyper-sensitive to also being perceived as accommodating lip service. No one can know the outcome of all of this but suffice to say, with a going concern warning in the Annual Report, absolutely anything is on the table.
CWN Price at posting:
$9.62 Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
