Playtech Confirms Gopher’s Takeover Proposal

One of the world’s leading providers of online gaming and software services, Playtech today confirmed that the company has received a takeover proposal from Gopher Investments, a leading shareholder of Playtech. The latest confirmation from Playtech came nearly 6 weeks after the company agreed to sell Finalto, its financial trading division, to Gopher Investments.

Playtech mentioned that it has received a ‘preliminary approach’ from Gopher seeking access to certain due diligence information, in order to explore terms on which a possible offer for all of the issued and to be issued share capital of Playtech might be made. The software services provider highlighted that the discussions with Gopher are currently at an early stage and ongoing.

“As such, there can be no certainty that Gopher’s approach will result in an offer for the Company, nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made,” Playtech cleared. During the third week of October, Aristocrat Leisure agreed to buy Playtech in a deal worth $3.7 billion. Following the announcement, the share price of the London-listed company jumped from 430 GBX to 678 GBX within 24 hours.

Acquisition

Since the acquisition confirmation from Aristocrat, the overall market cap of Playtech increased steadily. Today, the shares are up by nearly 3% after confirmation from the company about the proposal from Gopher Investments. The stock price of Playtech currently stands at around 725 GBX.

“On 17 October 2021, Playtech and Aristocrat (UK) Holdings Limited, a company formed on behalf of Aristocrat Leisure Limited (“Aristocrat”), announced under Rule 2.7 of the Code that an agreement had been reached on terms pursuant to which Aristocrat will acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Playtech for 680p per share in cash, subject to the satisfaction of customary and other conditions, including shareholder approval of the sale of Finalto. A further announcement will be made in due course to update on the timing of the Aristocrat offer,” the company highlighted.