European gaming and lottery firm Bally’s Intralot confirmed it had reached an agreed £243 million takeover of Evoke (LON:EVOK). The offer values the UK company at 52p per share, 77% above its response to media chat regarding a potential takeover.
Game over
Intralot is offering Evoke investors 0.537 new Intralot shares with a value of €1.12 each, equivalent to 52p. It is also offering a cash alternative although this will be capped at £117 million or 48% of the deal by value.
The combination will create ‘a global gaming and lottery champion with scaled pan-European B2C’, according to the press release. The enlarged group will operate across six core markets with total addressable sales of €36 billion (£31 billion).
The acquisition is expected to unlock ‘highly executable synergy upside’ and drive EPS higher short-term. Intralot has identified £180 million of cost savings across marketing spend, operational efficiencies and IT systems.
There isn’t a great deal to say other than the deal offers Evoke shareholders an exit. For investors who bought the shares more than a year ago, taking the cash option means crystalising losses, which is never pleasant.
Evoke put itself up for sale in December because higher UK gambling duties decimated its profitability and cash gneration. Whether the new group turns a profit in the UK or it just reaps the synergy benefits instead remains to be seen.
Read the press release here:
https://www.evokeplc.com/investors
