Playtech strengthens financial portfolio with £67m acquisition
Playtech subsidiary TradeFX exercises option to buy CFD broker Ava Trade as supplier secures 200m loan facility
Playtech’s subsidiary TradeFX has struck an agreement to acquire online CFD broker Ava Trade for $105m (£67m), furthering Playtech’s recent expansion into the financial trading sector.
News of the agreement comes after TradeFX exercised an option to buy Ava Trade, an option it had secured prior to its £333m buyout by Playtech in April.
The acquisition of Dublin-headquartered Ava Trade, which is subject to approval by Playtech shareholders and financial service regulators, will further strengthen Playtech’s hand as the supplier attempts to forge a market-leading position in the financial trading sector.
“The acquisition of the Ava Group is another important milestone in Playtech’s strategy to expand and enhance its overall technology offering through multiple vertical markets,” Mor Weizer, Playtech CEO, said.
“Since the recent earnings-enhancing acquisition of TradeFX and the creation of our financials division we have sought further opportunities to broaden our reach into this vertical,” he added.
In addition to TradeFX and Ava Trade, Playtech has also agreed to acquire CFD firm Plus500, which this week announced an improved H1 performance despite having been forced to freeze thousands of UK accounts due to AML concerns.
However, the firm said it has since been able to reactive the majority of customers, which should help smooth the way for the £460m deal to complete at some point in the autumn.
Playtech also used the Ava Trade announcement to reveal it had secured a 200m unsecured revolving credit facility with Barclays Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The company said the funds, in addition to existing resources, would be used to fund recent acquisitions and also further growth initiatives.
Playtech’s share price finished the day up 9.1p at 827.6p.