Business
3 May, 2025
Second offer for casino
A SECOND bid, worth more than $200 million, has been made for The Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns by billionaire Chris Morris.
Also negotiating to take over the Cairns CBD gaming, restaurant, bar and hotel venue is Sam Arnaout of the Iris Group, which owns a string of hotels, mainly in Sydney.
In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday, the Reef Casino Trust confirmed negotiations were continuing with both Iris – which started in February – and the Morris Group.
Mr Morris, a co-founder of Computershare, owns The Ville resort-casino and the Ardo five-star hotel in Townsville, the Mt Mulligan Lodge rural retreat, Orpheus Island Lodge, Pelorus Island, the Nautilus fleet of helicopters at Cairns Airport as well as Morris Nautical superyachts in the Cairns Marina and several pubs and hotels, including the Julatten Hotel.
Iris Capital owns the Canberra and Alice Springs casinos, as well as 13 hotels, mostly in Sydney.
The Cairns casino, held by the ASX-listed Reef Casino Trust is reasonably profitable.
The casino trust made more than $10m last year and is undergoing an extensive renovation program worth millions of dollars.
The market capitalisation of the Reef Casino Trust is $147m and, according to the trust’s recently lodged 2024 financial statements, visitation levels have still not recovered to before COVID-19. However, in 2024 the casino’s visitation was up 1.5 per cent, boosted by domestic travellers as the Chinese mainland tourist market has barely returned. Electronic gaming was up 3.2 per cent but table gaming was down 8.3 per cent due to fewer premium players visiting.
On the hotel side, revenue rose four per cent, boosted by strong bookings from throughout Australia while food and beverage was up 5.5 per cent due to functions and live entertainment.
The casino is jointly operated by Casinos Austria International Ltd and Accor Casino Investments (Australia) Ltd. Accor also manages the Pullman-branded 128-room hotel on the property.
In the ASX statement, Reef Corporate Services Ltd (RCSL), which manages the trust, confirmed that it is “in ongoing and incomplete negotiations with both Iris and Morris Group in relation to indicative, non-binding and highly conditional proposals to acquire 100 per cent of the units in RCT”.
The statement said the proposals sought to buy all of the trust as well as the capital of Casinos Austria International and RCSL.
“Discussions remain confidential and incomplete, and there is no certainty that the discissions will lead to a transaction …,” the statement said.
“RCSL confirms that both proposals are in excess of $200m for all the component parts,” it said.
The last time the trust was involved with a takeover bid was in 2013 by the Fung family behind the failed $8 billion Aquis resort and casino at Yorkey’s Knob. Billionaire Tony Fung and his family later bought the Canberra casino, sold to Mr Arnaout for $63m in 2022.
