Hills-GVC deal for Sportingbet set to complete today
Completion follows several months of negotiations over £454m joint acquisition.
The joint acquisition of Sportingbet by William Hill and GVC is expected to complete today more than six months after news of the deal emerged.
The final hurdle was overcome last week when the listing of shares and convertible bonds in Sportingbet was suspended as shareholders of GVC Holdings and the London-listed operator both provided near-unanimous approval for the acquisition, which values Sportingbet at 56.1p a share.
If the £454m deal goes through as expected today, it will see William Hill take control over Sportingbet’s Australian operations “ including the Centrebet business which it acquired in 2011, while also having a call option on the Spanish-facing Miapuesta database. GVC, meanwhile, will take over the remainder of Sportingbet’s portfolio including the Danish business and those in unregulated markets.
News of the deal first broke in September 2012, with an initial offer of £350m being rejected by Sportingbet the following month. The bidders were subsequently given a total of four extensions to make an improved offer, agreeing “in principle” a 65p per share offer to seal the deal by early December, before revising this proposal to set a price of 56.1p a share.
Last week Sportingbet shareholders voted in favour of two resolutions associated with the deal, with 87% of those at a shareholder general meeting and 83% at a court meeting supporting the proposals, comfortably meeting the 75% threshold required. GVC’s shareholders also approved all relevant resolutions at an extraordinary general meeting last week.