Evolution Gaming Offers £1.68bn NetEnt Buyout, Executives Agree

A new B2B online casino giant may soon be born with Evolution Gaming making an offer to acquire 90% of NetEnt’s shares for estimated £1.68 billion. NetEnt’s board of directors has recommended shareholders to accept the move.

NetEnt Feels Confident to Accept Evolution Gaming’s Offer

Leading live dealer supplier Evolution Gaming Group AB has extended an offer to all NetEnt shareholders to sell their shares in the company in exchange for 0.1306 Evolution Gaming shares. The move essentially means that Evolution Gaming is looking to take over Net Entertainment, the premier developer of iGaming slots, table games, and for a while now, live dealer games.

NetEnt’s board of directors has recommended to the company’s shareholders to accept the offer. Based on that offer, NetEnt shares are valued at SEK 79.93 and the total value for all shares is  SEK 19.6 billion based on pricing as of June 23, 2020, and 33,660,000 shares of series A and additional 212,798,305 shares of series B.  

Overall, this amounts to estimated £1.68 billion should all shareholders agree and accept the bid. In real terms, shareholders will be getting a premium of 0.43 cent per share if they accept Evolution Gaming’s shares.  

However, the proposed amount is not subject to discussion, as Evolution Gaming would not subject it to further changes and that would be the final amount under the Takeover Rules. All parties will be able to begin deliberation and acceptance on August 17, 2020 and have until October 26, 2020 to complete the move.

Should all shares be transferred, this would put Evolution Gaming in control of roughly 90% of NetEnt’s present shares.

NetEnt’s Board of Directors Responds to the Move

Following the announcement, NetEnt executives convened to asses the proposal considering the company’s present financial standing and strategic goals. Executives factored prevailing market conditions and what operational challenges lied ahead if they accepted and, then again, turned down the offer.

Another particular point of evaluation of the offer had to do with the fact that the consideration offered was in Evolution Gaming shares, which required a closer look at the market. Presently, Evolution Gaming’s footprint has been rapidly expanding, with the company introducing 12 new games at ICE London 2020 earlier this year.

Upon examining the proposed takeover, members of the board agreed that accepting the offer would be in NetEnt’s best interest and have urged shareholders to follow through. Both Evolution Gaming and NetEnt have already conducted due diligence into each other’s operations as a prerequisite for regulatory approval.

Leading the B2B iGaming Segment

The combination of two behemoths in the iGaming sector would create a leader in the B2B online casino segment. Both NetEnt and Evolution Gaming will be able to tap into each other’s vast portfolio of products and strong positions in different markets.

Another boon to the tie-up is both companies’ quickly-increasing footprint in the United States, with the country slowly opening up to online gaming. There will be a better client and products diversification to help the companies cushion any shocks and adapt to changing market trends.

Not least, pooling both companies’ efforts will lead to a solid technological basis, allowing NetEnt and Evolution Gaming to offer a better end-user experience.