Former Chairman Robert Rankin has resigned as a Director of Crown Resorts as the fallout from the arrest of 18 employees in mainland China in October 2016 continues.
Mr Rankin stepped down from the Chairman’s role in January amid a major corporate reshuffle that saw John Alexander take over and James Packer return to the board. He had also been replaced as Chairman of Mr Packer’s private Consolidated Press Holdings.
In a statement, Mr Rankin – who played a key role in Crown’s initial selldown of its stake in Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd – said, “It has been an honor to have served on the Crown Resorts Board. The Company remains one of Australia’s most valuable tourism operators and I believe its employees are amongst the best in the global integrated resorts industry. I am proud of the direction that Crown Resorts is taking and my role in its development.”
Mr Rankin’s departure comes amid revelations that Crown Resorts has been actively closing its offices in a number of Asian countries.
Bloomberg reports that eight of Crown’s nine offices outside of Australia have been shuttered with all reference to them removed from the company website and phone lines disconnected. The only office still in operation is Hong Kong.
The closed offices include Macau, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Vietnam, Taipei, Bangkok, Jakarta and India.
“In Vietnam, the former Ho Chi Minh City office is empty and a woman who said she was Crown’s former representative said it closed about six months ago,” Bloomberg said. “Staff at a building in Bangkok say Crown vacated the premises this month. There’s no trace of Crown at its former premises in Taipei and Jakarta.
“In Singapore, Macau and Kuala Lumpur, the Crown offices were closed during business hours and neighboring tenants or building management say the offices appear to have been shuttered in the past few months.
“Meanwhile in India, where Crown previously listed just a phone number for its representative office, a man who identified himself as Nilay Singh said he no longer works for Crown as its head of marketing in the country.”
News of widespread office closures is the latest move in the company’s rapid retreat back to Australia where the company is looking to focus its energies on its Australian assets, including flagship properties in Melbourne and Perth and its luxury Barangaroo development in Sydney, due to open by 2022.
It also comes just one week after the 18 detained employees were officially charged with offences related to the promotion of gambling. They are due to appear in the Baoshan District Court in Shanghai on 26 June.
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