The Star’s chief,Robbie Cooke,said the group was extremely appreciative of the retail shareholders’ contribution.
“As conveyed at the time of the institutional entitlement offer completion,the capital structure initiatives will provide The Star with a strengthened balance sheet to deliver on its key strategic priorities and to meet the capital requirements provisioned for,” he said in a statement.
About 10,100 retail shareholders applied for their entitlements,or about 53 per cent of the group’s eligible pool. Approximately 80.5 million new shares that were not taken up under the retail entitlement offer will be taken up by the sub-underwriters of the share sale. Barrenjoey and Macquarie Capital were confirmed to be working on the equity raise after The Star walked away from distressed debt negotiations with Oaktree Capital Management ahead of the capital raising announcement last month.
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The Star revealed a$1.3 billion net lossfor the December half after a torrid six months marred by four shareholder class actions,the suspension of the company’s Sydney casino licence and an escalating number of fines that could stack up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Star has also been the focus of two independent inquiries in NSW and Queensland following aninvestigation by this masthead in October 2021. The inquiries found the casino operator had enabled suspected money laundering,large-scale fraud,organised crime and foreign interference in its Australian casinos.
The company’s shares have fallen more than 65 per cent in the past six months,and hovered at $1.42 in mid-morning trade.