Aristocrat Leisure Agrees to Buy Playtech for $3.7 Billion

Aristocrat Leisure Agrees to Buy Playtech for $3.7 Billion

The Aussie company is raising $961 million through share sales to fund the deal.

Australian gambling equipment maker Aristocrat Leisure has agreed to purchase London-listed Playtech plc, a major gaming software developer, for a price of £2.7 billion ($3.7 billion).

Officially announced on Monday, the acquisition will be made by Aristocrat wholly-owned subsidiary Bidco if the two parties agree to further terms and conditions of the deal.

The Australian company offered to purchase Playtechs ordinary shares at 680 pence ($9.35) per share, which is a premium of almost 58 percent to the closing price on October 15. This values the entire issued ordinary share capital of Playtech at approximately £2.1 billion on a fully diluted basis and around £2.7 billion on an enterprise value basis.

Building of a Global Gambling Infra Giant

“The proposed combination would bring together Aristocrat‘s world-class gaming content, customer and regulatory relationships with Playtech’s industry-leading global online RMG platform (B2B) and European B2C footprint,” said Trevor Croker, CEO at Aristocrat.

He further elaborated that the combination of the entities would result in the offering of a broad portfolio of end-to-end solutions for gaming customers around the world.

The Australian gaming giant also initiated efforts to raise AUD 1.3 billion (more than $961 million) with share sales to fund the acquisition deal. The company is selling the shares at a discount of 8.6 percent to the closing price of October 15.

The acquisition efforts came when Playtech was aggressively expanding its footprints in the United States and Latin American markets. The strategy of the company after the impact of the pandemic has boosted its B2B revenue.

Playtech CEO, Mor Weizer said: “This deal has the potential to enhance our distribution, our capacity to build new and deeper relationships with partners, and bolsters our technological capabilities.”

Meanwhile, Playtech also entered into a definitive agreement with Hong Kong-based Gopher Investments to sell its financial trading division Finalto in a $250 million cash deal.