Crown’s investments impacted by downturn

Australian operator Crown has revealed that its international investments have been "severely impacted" by the global economic downturn.

Crown announced a net loss of AU$1,197.9m for the financial year ended June 30, 2009, after write-downs and other non-recurring items of $1,440.1m. The write-downs were related primarily to the carrying value of Crown’s investments in North America, where trading conditions have been challenging.

However, the company’s executive chairman, James Packer, said both Crown Melbourne and Burswood had delivered “superior growth performance” and Melco Crown has made “significant progress” in Macau.

Crown’s Australian casino business achieved normalised EBITDA growth of 5.2 per cent for the year and VIP gaming volumes reach record levels at both Melbourne and Burswood.

“In the year ahead, the primary focus of the company is to optimise the performance of Crown Melbourne and Burswood, and to continue to manage the substantial refurbishment and capital expenditure programmes currently underway at both properties,” Packer said. ”We will continue to work with Melco Crown to further build the value of the business in Macau, and together with our joint venture partners will seek to optimise the value of our other international investments.”