Australia's Packer takes seat at De Niro's Nobu table

Australian billionaire James Packer's casino and hotel operator Crown Resorts Thursday said it has bought a 20 percent stake in Robert De Niro's upmarket Nobu Japanese restaurant chain.

Crown, which already houses Nobu restaurants at resorts in Perth, Melbourne and Manila, paid US$100 million for the interest, just days after Packer and De Niro helped launch Macau's newest casino, Studio City.

Crown chairman Rob Rankin said Packer would join the Nobu board.

"We see the Nobu brand as complementary to Crown Resorts' global luxury entertainment positioning and the Nobu business has an attractive near-term growth profile, with a number of new restaurant and hotel openings planned," he said.

"James Packer established Crown's relationship with Nobu some years ago. This acquisition cements that existing strong relationship."

Nobu is co-owned by De Niro, businessman Meir Teper and chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

As well as the Nobu link, Packer and De Niro have forged a relationship via the Australian mogul's film production company RatPac Entertainment, which he owns with Hollywood production guru Brett Ratner.

RatPac produced a short film, "The Audition", promoting the Studio City resort, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Brad Pitt.