Echo has “plan B” should Brisbane casino bid fail

Thursday 27th of November 2014

Echo Entertainment Chairman John O’Neill has said the company has a “plan B” should it fail in its bid to win a second casino license in Brisbane.

The company, which already has a casino in the city, is part of a consortium competing against a group including Crown Resorts International to redevelop the Queen’s Wharf site downtown.

“It’s a contest. We are of course intensely interested in being the winner,” local media reported him as saying at an Institute of Company Directors lunch.

“Complacency doesn’t enter our vocabulary. We do have a Plan B if we lose ... but of course we’re in it to win it,” he said, adding the company has a pretty elegant solution for the Queen’s Wharf site. He didn’t give details of possible alternative plans.

He also questioned whether it would be viable to open up a second casino in Brisbane near to its own Treasury Casino site. Echo has previously said it would restore the historic Treasury building and transfer gaming activities to the new property were it to win the license.

O’Neill also spoke about plans by Asian bidders for multi-billion dollar resorts in Queensland. The government is offering up one license in Brisbane and two in regional locations.

Aquis Group, led by Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung, plans an A$8.15 billion ($7 billion) resort at Yorkeys Knob, while ASF Group plans a major investment on the Gold Coast.

“I thought it was curious than an investor would want to invest $8 billion in Cairns,” he was cited as saying. “It is not something Echo would do.”

“Would you invest $1 billion? Maybe. For $8 billion, you’d need a lot of things to go right.”