Entain’s announcement of their public offer to the shareholders of Enlabs of SEK 40 in cash per share has met with a recommendation to accept from the Enlabs Independent Bid Committee.
The offer values Enlabs at approximately SEK 2.8 billion (based on 69,924,433 shares), and the acceptance period is expected to begin on or around 21 January, 2021 and expire on or around 18 February, 2021, subject to any extensions.
This is very big news indeed for the online gambling industry, considering the companies involved.
ENLABS – which stands for Entertainment Laboratories – creates entertainment through innovative thinking within iGaming, and has offices in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Malta, Marbella, Minsk and Stockholm. The operating subsidiaries hold national licenses for their operations, and the Group employs approximately 300 employees.
Entain plc, a FTSE 100 company, is one of the world’s largest sports betting and gaming groups in the online and retail sector, operating in more than 20 countries across five continents. Having rebranded in December 2020 (from GVC Holdings), the Group includes some of the industry’s most well-known brands, including Ladbrokes, Coral, BetMGM, bwin, Sportingbet, Eurobet, partypoker, partycasino, Gala and Foxy Bingo.
Entain believes that combining forces would allow Enlabs to accelerate delivery in terms of both growth in existing markets and expansion into adjacent markets, including Belarus and Ukraine:
‘Entain places great value on Enlabs’ organization and, by leveraging Entain’s scale, proprietary technology, marketing skills and products, will drive further growth in order to create long-term positive effects for Enlabs employees and other stakeholders.’
It is significant that major shareholders Erlinghundra AB and Atletico Nordic B.V. -who collectively have 42.2% of the total number of shares (and votes) in Enlabs – have entered into commitments to accept the offer.
In its evaluation of the offer the Independent Bid Committee took numerous factors into consideration, including the company’s present strategic and financial position, prevailing market conditions and the company’s expected future development and opportunities. The Committee judged that Entain would be a good owner of the company in the coming years, and recommended – with a unanimous vote – that the shareholders in Enlabs accept the offer.
The Independent Bid Committee engaged Mangold to carry out ‘fairness’ considerations, resulting in the opinion that the offer is fair to the public shareholders of Enlabs from a financial point of view.
Watch this space…
