William Hill and Caesars Entertainment revealed that, at a meeting held on November 19th, the shareholders of the British gambling operators gave their approval to the recommended cash offer of 272p that Caesars had made. Now, the finalisation of the deal will depend on the approval of the competent regulatory authorities after the two companies make sure their agreement meets the remaining outstanding regulatory conditions. The deal will also have to get the English Court’s final approval.
The deal already received unanimous approval from William Hill’s board in September. At the time, the British gambling operator’s board preferred the takeover bid of Caesars Entertainment over a competitive offer made by the investment fund Apollo Global.
As revealed in a statement published on Caesars Entertainment’s website, each of the resolutions of the takeover deal was given the green light by the requisite majority of shareholders. The transaction received more than 86% of the votes cast at William Hill’s shareholder meeting.
A total of 1,251 of William Hill’s shareholders, who hold 86.6% of the overall issued share capital of the gambling business, backed the Caesars Entertainment deal, which is estimated at £2.9 billion. At the time when the shareholder meeting of the British gambling company took place, 54.6% of William Hill’s shares were represented in voting, which means that a little less than 50% of all the operator’s shares (47.3%) voted to approve the deal.
Apart from that, 87.1% of the company’s shareholders voted in favor of the implementation of Caesars Entertainment’s takeover scheme. Both measures had to be approved with a majority of William Hill’s voting shares in order for the transaction to proceed to the next step and eventually come into effect.
William Hill’s Board Approved Caesars’ £2.9-Billion Acquisition Bid in September
The two companies further revealed that they are making progress towards getting all regulatory approvals they need in order to be officially permitted to close the acquisition deal. Caesars Entertainment confirmed in a press release that it is aimed at completing the takeover in March 2021.
Under the terms of the agreement, Caesars Entertainment is set to acquire the 1.08 billion shares of William Hill at the price of £2.72 each. As the two companies have previously revealed, it is the US betting operations of the British gambling company that is the acquisition’s target, with the rest of William Hill’s business also expected to be sold.
According to preliminary expectations shared by Caesars Entertainment, its enlarged operation after the finalisation of the takeover deal could generate net revenue of up to $700 million during the 2021 fiscal year.
In its latest official announcement, Caesars Entertainment shared that the competition authorities in Austria have given the nod to the deal after they took it into consideration and found no violation of the Austrian Cartel Act of 2005.
As mentioned above, the US gambling giant said that it expects the William Hill deal to receive all required regulatory approvals sometime during the second quarter of the following year, possibly at the end of March 2021 at the earliest.
- Author
Olivia Cole
