Troubled casino giant Crown Resorts has received a takeover bid from the private equity group Blackstone.

The James Packer-backed group said on Monday morning that it received the unsolicited, non-binding and indicative proposal from Blackstone on Sunday worth $11.85 per share, valuing Crown at $8 billion. Crown’s shares last traded at $9.86.

“The Crown Board has not yet formed a view on the merits of the proposal,” the company said in an ASX statement.

“It will now commence a process to assess the proposal, having regard to the value and terms of the Proposal and other considerations.”

The takeover offer – which is a 19 per cent premium to Crown’s average share price since February 18 – comes as the company continues to reel in the fallout from the NSW Bergin Inquiry.

That 18-month probe, conducted by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, ruled Crown unfit to hold the licence for its new $2.2 billion casino at Sydney’s Barangaroo after confirming reports in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that it had facilitated money laundering and allowed criminals to infiltrate its Melbourne and Perth casinos.

Victoria and Western Australia have subsequently launched royal commissions to examine whether Crown should keep its casino licences in those states.

The gaming floors are Crown Sydney were set to open in late December but remain shut while the company tries to satisfy the NSW gambling regulator it is implementing reforms to make itself a suitable casino licence holder.

Commissioner Bergin’s damning final report also triggered a mass exodus from the company, with five directors and Crown’s chief executive resigning since February 9.

Blackstone – which manages $US619 billion ($800 billion) of assets globally – came onto the Crown share register in April 2020 when it bought a 9.99 per cent stake in the company from Hong Kong casino group Melco Resorts for a bargain price of $8.15 a share.

Melco had bought its stake from major shareholder James Packer a year earlier in a deal that helped trigger the damaging NSW Bergin Inquiry.

Mr Packer still owns 37 per cent of the shares in Crown making him a kingmaker in any takeover bid. The billionaire has tried to sell his stake or privatise Crown several times in recent years.

He was in negotiations to sell Crown to the American casino group Wynn Resorts in early 2019 but that fell over when details were leaked to the media. Mr Packer then agreed to sell 20 per cent of the company to Melco for $1.76 billion, although only half of those shares ever changed hands.

It remains to be seen whether Blackstone’s approach will be attractive for Mr Packer and Crown’s minority shareholders. Blackstone’s offer of $11.85 a share is below Wynn’s reported offer (which had an implied value of $14.85 a share) and the Melco deal ($13).

Crown’s shares were worth $12.10 in January 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shut its casinos and before the Bergin Inquiry threw the future of its operations into doubt.

The New York-based Blackstone has considerable experience with casinos and hotels. In Las Vegas it owns The Cosmopolitan, and the real estate assets of the MGM Grand, MGM Mandalay Bay and Bellagio resorts.

In 2018 it bought the European outfit Cirsa, which operates more than 140 casinos across Spain and Latin America, and just last week agreed to buy the American hotel chain Extended Stay America in partnership with investment firm Starwood for $US6 billion.

Blackstone exited an 11-year investment in the hotel giant Hilton in 2018 which earned it $US14 billion, which at the time was the most profitable private equity play on record.

A spokeswoman for Blackstone confirmed it had made the takeover offer and that it was subject to a number of conditions. They include Crown’s directors unanimously supporting the sale and Blackstone receiving clearance as a “suitable person” to operate Crown’s Sydney, Melbourne and Perth casinos.

This story originally appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. Read the original story here.

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