Business
28 February, 2025
Takeover bid for Reef Hotel Casino
CASINO and pub operator Iris Capital has made a bid for the Reef Casino Trust (RCT) which owns the casino and hotel complex in Cairns.
Iris, led by rich lister Sam Arnaout, owns the Canberra and Alice Springs casinos, as well as 13 hotels, mostly in Sydney.
It is understood the bid is for $130 million.
The takeover offer resulted in the trust suspending trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday until Thursday last week.
On Wednesday last week, the board of the trust’s Reef Corporate Services Ltd (RCSL) said it had “received a confidential, non-binding and highly conditional proposal for Iris to acquire 100 per cent of the units in RCT for consideration of RCSL”.
“The proposal also contemplates the acquisition of RCSL (the responsible entity of RCT) and Casinos Austria International (Cairns) Pty Ltd, the operator of the Reef Hotel Casino owned by RCT,” the announcement said.
“To facilitate the exploration of the proposal, the board of RCSL has determined to grant Iris a four-week period of exclusive due diligence.”
“Discussions remain confidential and incomplete and there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction.
“RCT will continue to keep the market informed in accordance with its continuous disclosure obligations.”
Mr Arnaout is a rich lister with an estimated fortune of $2.6 billion. The former panelbeater, who grew up in Western Sydney, is one of the new guard of real estate moguls in Sydney and is also involved in developments, such as the luxury Oceania apartments overlooking Sydney’s Manly Beach.
He bought his first property at 17 and hasn’t stopped buying them since.
The son of refugees from Lebanon’s civil war, he grew up in a gritty suburb of Sydney’s west and has emerged in recent years as a major player in the Australian hospitality and development business.
He has quietly bought and sold pubs and hotels for 20 years, to the point where his wholly-owned Iris Capital today employs 2000 people and has an approximate $1 billion in annual turnover with a reputation for boldness.
The Reef Casino trust’s current capitalisation is $138.94m.
The trust made a distributable profit of $10.168m last financial year to December 31, 2024, slightly down from 2023 ($10.742m).
Revenue and other income, mainly rental income from the Reef Hotel Casino, was slightly lower at $25.518m ($26.291m in 2023).
The casino is jointly operated by Casinos Austria International Ltd and Accor Casino Investments (Australia) ltd. Accor also runs the Pullman-branded hotel on the casino site.
Iris owns Casino Canberra and Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs. Its pub portfolio is mainly in Sydney
The last time the Reef Casino Trust was the subject of a takeover bid was in 2013, by the Fung family behind the failed $8 billion Aquis resort and casino at Yorkey’s Knob. Tony Fung and his family later bought the Canberra casino which it has since sold.
