The Star’s single biggest shareholder, Bruce Mathieson Snr, has increased stake in the company to 9.6%. despite its current regulator woes.

While revelations at the second Bell inquiry mean The Star’s Sydney casino licence is under threat, Mathieson Snr and his family company have chosen to boost their holding, spending $18.46million to buy almost 40 million additional shares over the past week as Star’s share price collapse.

The move has prompted The Australian to ask: “Why on earth would multibillionaire pokies king Bruce Mathieson want to increase his stake?”

The answer?

“For Mathieson, his investment is more than a punt on whether Star stays afloat,” The Australian said. “The pubs baron is anticipating a break-up of Star and as the single biggest shareholder this gives him a very big seat at the table.”

As the Australian Financial Review adds: “There are a number of directors at Star who are convinced that the government – and the regulator – are hoping the one outcome of the Bell inquiry will be the consolidation of the city’s two casino licences into one.”

Last month, Mathieson noted that he was taking a long-term view with The Star, which he said has “some wonderful assets”.

According to The Australian, Gold Coast-based Mathieson is eyeing Star’s “cleaner” Queensland properties and the $3 billion Queen’s Wharf casino development (above), which is set to open in August.

“Star is well down the path of getting a return to suitability from Queensland regulators,” The Australian notes.

Mathieson is also chafing over having a lot of his money tied up in Endeavour Group, which has been underperforming since listing in 2021. A Board war broke out at Endeavour last year when high-powered shareholders including former Woolworths chief executive Roger Corbett, former Myer Chairman Bill Wavish and Mathieson Snr took public aim at the company.

“Endeavour is very, very poorly run under the guidance of [chairman] Peter Hearl and [CEO] Steve Donohue [above], and the figures prove it, don’t they? We are not going ahead, we are going backwards and in the industry hotels aren’t dropping off in value, and it has performed very poorly under this management,” Mathieson said.

Mathieson was victorious when Hearl departed in March and was replaced by former Carlton & United Breweries CEO Ari Mervis.

But his finances have taken a hit. Australia’s Richest 250 of 2024 list revealed his wealth was $2.55billion (down from $2.90billion in 2023). He’s also taken a hit on his investment in The Star. His original investment totalled about $170 million prior to this week’s splurge, which takes his investment to more than $188 million.

However, based on the current share price of The Star, Mathieson’s investment in the company is worth just $116 million.

He previously revealed his investment in The Star would be a long-term holding. Watch this space …