iGaming giant Evolution Gaming has bid to buy $2 bn worth shares of NetEnt

The Swedish online gaming company offered to buy NetEnt to increase their collective cost savings and expand their customer base. 

On 24th June 2020, Evolution Gaming presented an offer to buy a live gaming establishment of their industry, NetEnt, for approximately $2.12 billion in stock. Following this news, the NetEnt board is recommending its shareholders to take up the offer presented by Evolution. 

Along with every share of NetEnt, Evolution is offering 0.1306 shares to every shareholder that accepts the offer. Until now, large shareholders who own 45% of NetEnt have agreed to accept it. The per-share offer consideration denotes a premium of 43 percent of NetEnt’s closing price on Nasdaq Stockholm on Tuesday. 

As stated by Evolution, the acceptance period of the offer will begin on August 17, 2020, and expire on October 26, 2020, respectively. This offer will not be increased. 

The completion of this offer depends on obtaining regulatory clearances. After achieving that customary condition, the completion will only happen when the offer gets accepted to such extent that Evolution owns greater than 90 percent of the number of total outstanding shares. Once that is achieved, Evolution aims to launch a complete buyout procedure according to the Swedish Companies Act. 

With this combination of NetEnt and Evolution, an annual cost saving of €30m is expected, when compared to the consolidated cost basis of the companies as of the first quarter of the year. Through this transaction, a significant positive impact is expected in Evolution’s earning per share in the future.  

Explaining the potentials of NetEnt, its chairman Mathias Hedlund affirmed that the company has reached an influential position in the states of the USA that have started online casinos. Further emphasizing on the deal with Evolution, he said, by taking advantage of the market development in the online world, especially in North America, this deal could reshape into a leading global B2B online casino provider. 

Chris Amador

Chris Amador founded Casino Cross due to his passion for the workings of Casino industry. Since the day he came to know about the importance of casino business, he has been obsessed with the same. Industry reports from the casino sector are his specialty.