Entain receives regulatory approvals to complete Enlabs purchase
Entain is to proceed with its completion of acquiring Enlabs after the operator received all of the necessary regulatory approvals required.
The Ladbrokes and Coral operator submitted an offer to acquire Enlabs in a cash deal which valued the Baltics operator at SEK 2.8bn ($328.4m), in early January.
However, the offer worth SEK 40 for each Enlabs share was rejected by minority shareholders with an 11% stake in the operator, with Alta Fox Capital Management, who owns 3% of Enlabs, stating the offer “materially undervalued” the business.
While Entain stood by its valuation and extended the acceptance period for Enlabs to accept the offer until 18 March, last week the operator increased its offer by 33% to SEK 53 per share, which was declared as final by Entain. 51% of shareholders in Enlabs have since backed the new bid.
And now, Entain confirmed it has received all the necessary approvals from the relevant competition and gaming authorities, meaning all conditions to complete the offer have now been met and the acquisition can move to its final stages.
An Entain statement said: “As previously announced, the acceptance period under the offer will expire on 18 March 2021, 17.00 CET. Entain reserves the right to extend the acceptance period of the offer as well as to postpone the date of settlement.”
On 4 March, Entain reported a profit of £113.8m ($157.8m) for full-year 2020, a stark improvement from the loss of £!31.2m in 2019, while revenue was flat at £3.6bn.
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