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The Star Entertainment Group (ASX: SGR) has officially exited the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf joint venture in Brisbane as part of a $550 million refinancing package struck with US-based private credit investment manager WhiteHawk Capital Partners in February.
After almost a year of delays, the casino group says it has finally entered into binding long-form documentation with its Hong Kong-based joint-venture partners - Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium International – to hand them its 50 per cent control of the Destination Brisbane Consortium.
Under the terms of the divestment announced in August last year, The Star will remain casino operator of The Star Brisbane for now, but the new Chinese owners have the right to terminate the management contract with just 90 days' written notice.
In the meantime, The Star will forgo its Brisbane management fee of $5 million a month for a fixed annual fee of $18 million which will be paid monthly.
However, The Star still has the opportunity to boost its annual income from the Brisbane property via a performance-based incentive fee based on casino earnings.
The Star has revealed to the ASX that completion of the Destination Brisbane Consortium sale was a key condition of the new finance facility from WhiteHawk that will pay out existing group debt in full and provide liquidity for group operations.
The sale of the Brisbane assets represents the first stage of The Star’s plan to focus on The Star Gold Coast.
“The company is pleased to confirm that this condition precedent has now been satisfied and that the guarantee provided by the company under the Queen’s Wharf debt facilities will now be fully released,” says The Star.
“Completion of stage two is subject to a separate set of conditions precedent.”
The Star eventually plans to consolidate its Queensland casino operations on its Gold Coast property, with the Brisbane divestment leading to the second stage of the deal which will see the assets currently held jointly by its Hong Kong partners on the Gold Coast being transferred to The Star.
The company expects to satisfy all conditions for the Gold Coast buyout in the second half of this calendar year and no later than 31 March 2027.
The Star last month posted a net loss of $110 million for the first half of FY26, down from a $302 million loss a year earlier.
While underlying earnings were still in the red, the company’s $8 million EBITDA loss was down from a $26 million loss in the first-half of FY25 as revenue fell 10 per cent to $585 million.
When announcing the interim profit last month, The Star’s CEO, Bruce Mathieson Jnr, revealed that the company’s corporate office was being streamlined with essential support functions being managed at the property level in Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane.
The company said at the time that while overall trading results remain at historical lows, quarter-on-quarter volumes have stabilised.
Soft trading conditions at The Star Sydney persisted in January this year with revenue 3 per cent below the average for the second quarter of FY26 and 6 per cent below January 2025.
The Star Gold Coast’s January 2026 revenue was in line with the previous corresponding period and 11 per cent higher than the average for the second quarter of FY26, which reflected seasonally stronger gaming volumes.
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