UK gambling giant Entain has completed its public cash offer for the acquisition of the Baltic markets operator Enlabs AB at a price of £4.48 (SEK53) per share. The revised offer, which was placed through Entain’s wholly-owned subsidiary Bwin, has been accepted by shareholders owning 94.2% of the total number of the company’s shares and votes.
Entain declared the takeover bid unconditional as all conditions of the completion of the proposed deal have been satisfied, with the settlement of Enlabs shares set to be completed by March 30th, 2021. The UK gambling company has already secured regulatory approval for the transaction.
The acceptance period of the proposal has been extended by Entain until 13:00 CET on April 1st, 2021 in order to provide Enlabs shareholders who have not yet accepted the final terms of the takeover offer to take it. In this case, the takeover deal is expected to be finalised around April 13th.
As revealed by the UK gambling operator, warrants issued by Enlabs and acquired by employees under the incentive programme of the company are not included in the takeover offer. In a separate offer, Entain has suggested acquiring all interests owned by warrant holders in Enlabs, with the bid having been accepted by holders of 1.35 million of the overall 1.4 million warrants held by participants in the company’s incentive programme.
Enlabs’ Takeover Would Help Entain Expand Presence in New Regulated Gambling Markets
After receiving the shareholder approval needed to go on with the deal, Entain has published a further update of its takeover bid and deal prospectus. The company revealed that it will proceed with the integration of Optibet – the flagship brand of Enlabs and the leading sports betting operator on the markets of Latvia and Estonia.
The Enlabs takeover is the first merger and acquisition deal of the company under the leadership of its new Chief Executive Officer Jette Nygaard-Andersen and Deputy Chief Executive Rob Wood.
The company made the acquisition offer in January this year, only days after it turned down a takeover bid made by the US gambling giant MGM Resorts. At the time, the revealed price of the all-cash deal was £250 million. This offer was subsequently increased earlier this month, as Entain decided to boost the per-share price from SEK40 to SEK53, securing the approval of the majority shareholders of Enlabs.
The completion of the deal would provide further expansion of the UK gambling group’s reach into new regulated markets, such as the ones of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. At the time when the acquisition offer was officially revealed, the former CEO of Entain, Shay Segev, described the potential addition of Enlabs as a perfect match for his company’s strategy aimed at boosting its presence into new regulated gambling sectors.
- Author
Olivia Cole
