It said Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos hadn’t submitted a proposal directly, but that a local partner was part of a consortium that was one of the other interested parties.

“The Star confirms that it has not received a proposal directly from Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos,” a statement from The Star said.

“However, the company has received inbound interest from a number of other external parties regarding potential transactions including a consortium of investors which includes the entity Hard Rock Hotels and Resorts, which The Star understands is a local partner of Hard Rock.

“The nature of the interest to date has been confidential, unsolicited, preliminary and non-binding.

“At this stage, none of the approaches has resulted in substantive discussions.”

The Star went into a trading halt just before 10 am today in response to the reports about Hard Rock’s takeover bid.

The AFR also reported Blackstone, which owns Star’s rival Crown, is interested but hasn’t submitted a proposal to buy the neighbouring casino operator.

That report is due by the end of the month, and could see its now provisional license scrapped.

In addition to its Sydney venue, The Star also runs casinos in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Florida-based Hard Rock runs hotels, restaurants and casinos across the world.