Packer’s punt on tech delivers a $500m win
JAMES Packer’s private company has made a $500m profit due in part to a string of American technology stock investments, in a preview of what the billionaire may do with the funds he would earn from selling his Crown Resorts shares.
The latest accounts of the billionaire’s Consolidated Press Holdings show Mr Packer’s paper fortune surging by about $600m after a bumper 2021 that was also boosted by a rise in the value of his Crown shares.
CPH made a net profit of $530m in the year to June and paid Mr Packer a $111m dividend, the accounts lodged with the corporate regulator on Tuesday reveal.
The result is one of the biggest for an Australian private company this year and, while it is mainly due to the increasing value of Mr Packer’s investments, it is still bigger than investment companies such as Angela Bennett’s Wright Prospecting and Michael Hintze’s hedge fund, CQS. It is also a significant turnaround from the $400m paper loss Mr Packer incurred in 2020.
CPH, which houses Mr
Packer’s assets that include his 37 per cent stake in Crown and a collection of private holdings, recorded a gain of almost $480m on the value of the assets on the balance sheet in 2021. It also paid itself about $151m in management fees from the performance of its subsidiary companies and reaped $114m from the sale of various assets during the year.
Key to the result was a new focus on buying and trading technology stocks, particularly companies listed on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange, but also some preIPO tech investments. One big success has been in Southeast Asian digital real estate marketplace PropertyGuru, which will go public on the Nasdaq in a $US1.8bn deal with a special purpose acquisition company backed by Richard Li and Peter Thiel.
CPH is also understood to have about $100m directly invested in venture capital firm Square Peg Capital, led by Andrew Bassat, and both firms have invested in companies such as the NYSE-listed ride sharing firm Uber.
Another hit for CPH has been Israeli freelance marketplace Fiverr, which has surged about 400 per cent since floating on the NYSE in 2019.
So well have the technology investments performed that they offset CPH once again missing out of any dividends from Crown, which previously paid Mr Packer about $73m every six months.
The billionaire is also considering the merits of the latest takeover bid for Crown by global private equity giant Blackstone, which has offered $12.50 a share for the gaming and resorts company that Mr Packer and his family have been involved with for the best part of three decades.