Playtech Completes Finalto Sale!
Playtech has completed the sale of its financial trading division Finalto to Gopher Investments for $250m (£209m/€247,2m), ending a year-long saga for control of the division.
The cash sale closed on (July 11), more than a year after Gopher - a minority shareholder of Playtech - first submitted its bid.
Gopher managed to outbid a $210 million consortium led by the Barinboim Group. Playtech's board of directors initially agreed to sell Finalto to Barinboim, but this deal was rejected by shareholders, who pushed for Gopher's higher offer.
As a result, Playtech agreed to a sale to Gopher in September last year. The shareholders approved this in December.
Last week, Playtech predicted the deal would be finalized by mid-July after it was supposed to close on June 30th.
Quote:
Gopher is pleased to complete the acquisition of Finalto," said Teresa Teague, Gopher's principal.
We are impressed by the strength of Finalto's business and management team and look forward to working closely with the team to accelerate Finalto's ambition to become the global partner of choice in the financial trading sector.
Playtech decided to sell Finalto in March 2021, two years after it first considered divesting the business.
Playtech itself could also be sold soon. The company originally agreed to be acquired by Aristocrat, but this deal fell through due to insufficient shareholder support.
JKO Play had attempted to acquire Playtech but later withdrew.
TTB Partners - a company that has held an advisory role for Gopher - participated in the race in February of this year.
However, TTB Partners was placed under certain restrictions by Playtech, meaning it was only able to submit an offer after May 20th. They were then given a 17 June deadline to submit an offer before that was pushed back to 15 July.
Source: IGB
