Pursuant to a recent meeting bwin.party Digital Entertainment’s board made a decision to drop the bid made by 888 and accept the owner of Sportingbet, GVC Holding’s, latest bid and has agreed on a takeover deal that could possibly be completed by the end of this year.
GVC Holding and bwin.party released a statement on Friday stating that “the boards of GVC Holdings and bwin.party are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer pursuant to which GVC will acquire the entire issued as well as to be issued ordinary share capital of bwin.party”.
According to gambling industry expert Scott Longley, the desire to acquire bwin.party was different for both firms with 888 needing the Bwin sports book because they do not own their own sports book technology while for GVC, the deal is more about gaining scale and gaining more customers.
It is estimated that the cash and share operation will cost a total of $1.71 billion and in order to complete the deal, GVC has offered about 129.64 pence per bwin.party share, representing a premium of approximately 12.5 percent to the shares’ closing price on 3rd September, 2015.
The operation will be partially financed with a senior secured debt for up to $445.2 million and GVC is aiming to raise approximately $229.3 million by a placing of new GVC shares to institutional investors as well as a subscription of New GVC Shares by certain investors, under the Fundraising.