Online gaming and financial trading giant Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) announced today that it has completed buying back €50 million (USD $52 million) of its own shares in the open market.
Teddy Sagi
Playtech initiated the share buyback plan after its shares dropped around 10% late in November, following news that controlling shareholder Teddy Sagi was selling £329 million (USD $411 million) Playtech shares, more than one-third of his stake in the company, at a significant discount to market.
In all (see table above), since the repurchases began on December 6 Playtech repurchased 5.28 million shares for total consideration of £41.9 million (a little bit less than €50 million at current exchange rates).
Application will be made by Playtech for the repurchased shares to be cancelled. The company holds no shares in treasury.
Playtech shares have actually traded down some more since the buyback plan began. Soon after the plan was initiated, PTEC shares took a 4% dip following UK financial regulator FCA’s announcement of tighter rules governing Forex and CFD trading. Playtech’s Financials division runs FX brokerage businesses operating and licensed in both Cyprus (Markets.com) and the UK (CFH Group).