Australian gambling operator Crown Resorts consider to farewell its former Chief Executive Rowen Craigie properly, paying him termination benefits of $6.27 million in cash and $2.9 million in shares. The company, led by the billionaire James Packer, needed to part ways with its highly-valued CEO Rowen Craigie, who left his post in late February this year. Mr. Craigie spent 10 years at the company’s helm, joining the Crown’s team as far back as 1993. In 2007, Mr. Craigie was named Chief Executive and Managing Director of Crown Resorts, loyally serving the company’s best interests.
Earlier today, the Australian news outlet SBS reported that Crown Resorts consider rewarding richly its former CEO for the loyal work over the past 10 years, which is to cost around $9.2 million in total. The proposal is currently put on hold, awaiting the stakeholders’ approval. Executive Chairman John Alexander asked the shareholders to give an approving nod to the proposal. Mr. Alexander took over Mr. Craigie’s position in the company as CEO. It was revealed that the newly-appointed Mr. Alexander was paid $2.1 million base salary plus some additional perks worth $700,000 for the 8 months, in which he is in charge of the CEO office.
Crown Resorts Faces Hardships
Here it is interesting to note that Mr. Craigie’s departure is related to the company’s strategy to efficiently decrease the value of its expenditures, which included many job cuts. According to various reports, Mr. Craigie voluntarily agreed to resign his post, which was ascended by John Alexander. The news for Mr. Craigie’s replacement came shortly after the case in which 18 Crown Resorts employees were arrested in mid-October in China, accused of promoting gambling activities, considered to be illegal in the People’s Republic of China. The casino staff was wooing high-end players from Mainland China to gamble in Crown’s gambling properties in Australia. This left a deep scar on the company’s reputation, which led to a significant drop in revenue, as well as a dangerous decline in the price of its shares on the stock market.
To crawl out of the hole, the company needed to step away from its casino project in Las Vegas and to quit on its plans to separate domestic assets from its international ones. Moreover, Crown sold 13.4% of its stakes in Asia-targeting Melco Crown Entertainment Limited to Melco International Development Limited. The operator’s retreat from the international market and the share sale led to a team and organizational realignment. Currently, Crown Resorts operates 2 casino resorts in Australia, and more precisely one in Melbourne and one in Perth. Focusing on its Australian gambling operations, the operator launched a renovation project for its Crown Sydney, located in Barangaroo, Sydney.
