Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Packer’s Crown Buys Cannery Casino for $1.75 Billion

Crown Ltd., Australian billionaire James Packer’s gaming company, agreed to buy Cannery Casino Resorts LLC for $1.75 billion in cash, doubling its gambling investments in North America. The acquisition of closely held Cannery will add to earnings per share and be funded with existing cash reserves, Melbourne- based Crown said in a statement today.

The purchase of three casinos in the Las Vegas region and a racetrack in Pittsburgh comes less than two weeks after Packer, Crown’s biggest shareholder and Australia’s richest man, split his media assets into a separate company to focus on the faster growing casino business. The 40-year-old has led more than $3 billion of gaming acquisitions in North America this year, adding to assets in Australia, Macau and the U.K.

“They’ve been looking to expand in the U.S. and this is where they see their opportunity,” said Sean Fenton, who helps manage the equivalent of $832 million at Jenkins Investment Management in Sydney.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=arlA_hb_Z9C0