Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure to buy Playtech for £2.7bn
02:08, 18 October 2021
Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure on Monday said it will acquire London-listed online gaming software developer Playtech for an enterprise value of £2.7bn ($3.7bn).
The Australian slot-machine maker said it will pay 680 British pence per Playtech share, which represents a premium of over 58% to the firm’s Friday close.
Trading of Aristocrat Leisure shares are halted until Thursday.
Funded by cash, debt and equity
The deal will be funded with a combination of existing cash, new debt and equity raising, according to the press release.
Aristocrat Leisure will raise AUD1.3bn by issuing 31.1 million shares at an offer price of AUD41.85 per share, a discount of about 8% to its last close of AUD45.79.
The acquisition is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2022 subject to certain antitrust, foreign investment, gaming regulatory and financial regulatory consents and approvals being obtained, Aristocrat Leisure said.
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Deal to be EPSA accretive
The company said it has received letters of intent from Playtech’s biggest shareholder to vote in favour of the deal.
The deal is expected to be mid to high single digit accretive to Aristocrat Leisure’s EPSA (earnings per share before amortisation of acquired intangibles) in the first full year of ownership, according to the press release.
Aristocrat Leisure said it expects full-year 2021 revenue of AUD4.73bn and net profit after tax and amortisation of AUD864m for the period.