Kazuo Okada, the Japanese gaming tycoon entangled in several judicial battles, will not be included as a party in the settlement agreement between Wynn Resorts, Aruze USA and Universal Entertainment, the latter announced on Friday.
While Okada was at the heart of the circumstances that ultimately led to the litigation, which was first launched in 2012, his former company Universal declared that “Kazuo Okada is not a party to the Settlement Agreement and nothing in the Settlement Agreement is intended to be construed as giving a release of any kind to Kazuo Okada.”
The legal confrontation started when Okada was identified by Wynn Resorts as an “Unsuitable Person” in 2012 and the board took the decision to redeem over 24 million shares of Aruze USA, the main shareholder of Wynn Resorts and then headed by Okada himself.
In its Friday announcement, Universal Entertainment said that an agreement reached between Okada, on behalf of Aruze USA, with Steve Wynn in 2012 that delegated comprehensive decision making power to the American businessman had negatively impacted the capacity of the company’s legal response. These difficulties led to a change in Universal’s legal strategy to focus on reaching a settlement.
As per the terms of the settlement agreement, Wynn Resorts will pay Universal a principal amount of the redemption notes amounting to almost US$2 billion and an additional US$463.5 million in agreed interest payments.
The announcement indicates that Universal “will continue dialogue with the new management team of Wynn Resorts to build a constructive relationship toward the future,” adding that, “The company and Wynn Resorts have agreed to reasonably cooperate with each other in any future litigation against third parties.”
The settlement agreement also sees Universal and Aruze USA withdraw as parties to legal proceedings being convened in Macau’s Court of Appeal against Wynn Macau in regards to the redemption of shares, however Wynn Macau acknowledged in a Friday filing that the Macau proceedings may continue in respect to Okada given that he is not a party to the agreement.
Universal has revised its forecast net income for the financial year from ¥15.9 billion (US$148.9 million) to ¥195.5 billion (US$1.83 billion).
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