Sky City abandons Taverner plans

Sky City has dropped plans to bid for Australian pub company Taverner Group.

The casino operator said today it "does not expect to acquire the Taverner Hotel Group". The scant statement to the Stock Exchange didn't go into any detail behind the decision.

Sky City raised the ire of the exchange earlier this month when chairman Rod McGeoch let slip in a media interview that the firm was considering a bid for Australia's second-largest pub group.

That report appeared on newswires 17 minutes before the news was disclosed to the market.

Taverner owns 32 hotels and 2000 poker machines in Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales, and is expected to be worth as much as $A350 million ($NZ379.11 million).

Analysts were cynical about the possible bid, doubting that Taverner's assets would fit snugly within the Sky City fold. Sky City has a near monopoly on casinos in New Zealand and operates casinos in the Australian cities of Adelaide and Darwin.

Shares in Sky City closed yesterday at $4.45.

- NZPA