Oaktree Capital Management is offering to provide up to A$3bn (€1.9bn) of funding to Crown Resorts to enable the listed Australian resort group to buy back its shares from Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH).

Oaktree is proposing to issue a structured instrument, with the proceeds to be used by Crown to buy back some or all of the Crown shares now held by the largest shareholder. CPH, controlled by James Packer, currently has a shareholding of 37% in Crown.

Crown owns luxury hotels in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and other real assets, valued at around A$5bn.

Crown last month received an unsolicited takeover offer of A$8bn from Blackstone. Blackstone acquired almost 10% of the group last April.

The Crown board has chosen not to engage with Blackstone.

Crown said any buy-back of Crown shares held by CPH would be subject to Crown shareholder approval.

It also said: “The Crown board has not yet formed a view on the merits of the Oaktree proposal. It will now commence a process to assess the proposal.

“Crown shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the Oaktree proposal at this stage. There is no certainty that the proposal will result in a transaction.”

Crown owns luxury hotels in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and other real assets, valued at around A$5bn.

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