Playtech shareholder vote does not approve Aristocrat’s £2.7 billion bid

Steffy Bogdanova
February 2, 2022 4:53 pm

Gaming software company Playtech has announced that Aristocrat Leisure’s £2.7 billion ($3.7 billion) takeover bid was not approved by its shareholders.

At the latest Playtech shareholder meeting, 56% of the shareholders voted in favour of the deal, however, a minimum of 75% is needed for the decision to pass.

Playtech said in its official statement:

Earlier today, Playtech Plc convened the Court Meeting and General Meeting in connection with the recommended cash offer made by Bidco (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aristocrat).

The total votes in favour of the resolutions were 56.13% at the Court Meeting and 54.68% at the General Meeting, which were below the minimum threshold (75% of those shares voted) needed to approve the resolutions. Accordingly, the acquisition of Playtech by Bidco has been terminated and the Scheme has lapsed.

Playtech

Acquisition bids falling through

Australian gambling equipment maker, Aristocrat, had made an acquisition offer for Playtech stocks at 680 pence apiece last October.

Two other companies also showed interest in Playtech, JKO and Gopher, but they ultimately pulled out of the race. The Hong Kong-based company Gopher recently bought Playtech’s financial division Finalto in a $250 million deal, due to close in Q2 of 2022.

Playtech already expected the collapse of the deal based on the proxy votes it received. The London-listed company said it will to consider other offers as well, including breaking up its B2B gaming tech division and B2C consumer arm.

LeapRate Analyst

Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
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