Australian PBL clears final hurdle to demerger

Under the scheme, PBL’s gaming assets will be held by Crown, with the media assets held by Consolidated Media Holdings (CMH), both of which will be separately listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Shareholders in PBL, the company of the late Kerry Packer, overwhelmingly approved the plan last week. "The court orders approving the PBL scheme and the demerger scheme will be lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Friday, 30 November, 2007," the company said in a statement.

At that point the schemes will take effect, it said. The first scheme allows Crown Ltd to buy all the shares of PBL and the second allows Crown to spin off PBL’s media assets into a separate company. Details about when the two new companies will begin trading are expected to be released on Friday. PBL shares closed up 25 cents at us$ 17.92.

Crown’s investments will include casinos in Australia, Macau, Britain and the United States, with an ongoing acquisition of Gateway Casinos in Canada in partnership with Australia’s Macquarie Bank.

PBL’s media operations will go to CMH, with assets including 25 percent of television network Foxtel, 50 percent of Fox Sports, 27 percent of job search website Seek and 25 percent of PBL Media.