Entain’s board has extended its offer acceptance period and is standing by its initial offer to acquire Enlabs.
The board of Entain Plc, the company formerly known as GVC Holdings, has extended the offer acceptance period for its £250m bid to acquire the Baltic facing company Enlabs.
Entain stands by offer
In an announcement this morning, Entain confirmed that it had extended the acceptance period for its offer to acquire Enlabs until 18 March 2021. Entain went on to state that it expects a “deal settlement” to begin from 30 March should Enlabs accept the offer.
The offer to acquire Enlabs would see Entain pay SEK40 (£3.50) per cash share in the Baltic facing business. This would value the acquisition at SEK2.8bn which is approximately £250m.
In its announcement, Entain said: “The Offer and the acquisition of Enlabs is conditional on, among other things, the receipt of all necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, approvals and decisions, including from competition authorities and gaming authorities, in each case on terms which, in Entain’s opinion, are acceptable.”
If the acquisition goes ahead, Entain will become the owner of more than 90% of Enlabs’ shares, which is one of the biggest operators in the Baltics.
Enlabs is also estimated to generate €89.5m in net gaming revenue over the next year with an EBITDA of €23.5m
At the time of writing, the offer to acquire the company remains unchanged despite minority shareholders in Enlabs calling for other investors to reject the bid.
Some shareholders not happy with the offer
Last month, Shareholders owning 10.7% of Enlabs rejected Entain’s £250m bid to take over the company as it “materially undervalues” the business.
US-based hedge fund, Alta Fox Capital Management, which owns 2,332,625 shares in Enlabs, or 3.34% of the total shares in the business, said it does not intend to tender any shares at the current price being offered.
Alta Fox said that it has support from several other minority shareholders in the business as well as Topline Capital, which holds 2.44% of the shares in Enlabs.
Alta Fox also explained that private investors Hans Isoz, Jimmy Jonsson and Ludwig Pettersson who each hold 2.58%, 1.71% and 0.63% of Enlabs’ shares respectively are also against Entain’s offer.
The US-based investor is calling for Entain to revise its offer and has proposed a counter offer which would see Entain pay 55SEK per share, valuing the company at £340 million.
