It was a week ago that gaming technology company Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) unveiled its proposal to purchase retail Forex broker AvaTrade Ltd (AvaTrade) for $105 million, in a further push to enhance its online trading business.
As under the Listing rules of the London Stock Exchange, such a transaction requires the proposal to get the approval of Playtech’s shareholders, the company has scheduled a General Meeting to put the bid to vote.
The General Meeting is to be held at 11:00 a.m. on 28 July 2015 at The Claremont Hotel, 18-22 Loch Promenade, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 2LX.
In a previous announcement, the directors of Playtech said they “consider the transaction to be in the best interests of Shareholders as a whole and unanimously recommend that Shareholders vote in favour of the Resolution at the General Meeting, as the Directors intend to do in respect of their own beneficial holdings, which in aggregate equal 68,500 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 0.02 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company as at 30 June 2015”.
More importantly, Brickington Trading Limited, being the largest Playtech shareholder, has undertaken to vote in favour of the transaction in respect of its own beneficial holding of 108,408,441 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 33.6% of the issued share capital of Playtech.
There seem to be no objections to the proposed deal at that point. The situation with Playtech’s bid for Plus500 seems much more controversial.
The vote on Playtech’s proposal for Plus500 will take place on July 16, 2015, with the situation there still unclear as Odey, which holds 25% stake in the broker clearly opposing Playtech’s bid. Plus500 shareholders, however, support Playtech’s proposal. The vote hinges on the side to gather more than 50% of the votes.
To view the official announcement by Playtech on the General Meeting for Ava Trade’s acquisition proposal, click here.