Less than 24 hours after the shareholders of the Australian gambling operator Tatts Group gave the green light to its long-expected merger with Tabcorp Holdings, the Supreme Court of Victoria officially approved the takeover’s Scheme of Arrangement.
Today, Tabcorp Holdings revealed that the merger’s Scheme was given the nod from the Supreme Court, with the Court orders being lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). As announced by the gambling and betting company, the Scheme which is now effective, is to be implemented on December 22nd, 2017.
Shareholders of Tatts Group Say “Yes” to the Deal
Yesterday, Tatts Group revealed that one of the last remaining hurdles related to its merger deal with Tabcorp was overcome, after its shareholders voted in favour of the takeover. As Casino Guardian has previously reported, their vote was scheduled for December 12th, with the Group calling them to give their support to the deal.
At that time, the Australian gambling operator also filed an application to the Supreme Court of Victoria to greenlight the deal at the hearing which was scheduled for December 13th.
These were some of the last obstacles on the way of the two Australian gambling companies to finally join forces, after a long and bumpy process of getting the local regulators’ approval. Several weeks ago, the Australian Competition Tribunal (ACT) confirmed its initial decision to approve the deal after its previous ruling was challenged by the country’s consumer regulatory authority – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and one of the two companies’ major rivals in the local gambling market – CrownBet.
The two major opponents of the deal challenged the initial decision of the Australian Competition Tribunal, saying that the merger could lead to massive imbalance of the market by creating an enormous gambling behemoth that would hurt competition in the region.
Both the Commission and CrownBet were given the right to appeal the new decision of the Tribubal until December 20th. This time, however, the ACCC did not oppose to the reviewed decision of the Tribunal, saying that it found no breach of local competition laws. With the Tatts Group’s shareholders providing their support to the AU$4.7-billion takeover offer and the Supreme Court of Victoria approving the deal’s Scheme, basically all regulatory requirements have been met in order for the deal to be carried out.
A Few Unfortunate Attempts
This has been the third attempt of Tabcorp Holdings and Tatts Group to join forces in a single, larger, and more successful entity since 2006. However, the previous two attempts of the two operators have faced certain difficulties and strong opposition which they failed to overcome.
As reported by Casino Guardian, this time the two companies were once again put under tight scrutiny and control by the local regulatory authorities, with some of them claiming that competition in the region would be seriously hurt in case that the two companies’ merger is given a go. As a result, the deal was sent back for another review to the Australian Competition Tribunal, which eventually reiterated its decision and allowed the merger.
- Author
Olivia Cole
