NetEnt Board Recommend to Accept Offer from Evolution Gaming

By Simon Wright, Last updated Jun 24, 2020

Pretty big news in the iGaming world today as this morning the board of directors of NetEnt released a regulatory  statement pursuant to Rule II.19 of the Nasdaq Stockholm Takeover Rules, whereby they recommended shareholders to  accept an offer for the company from Evolution Gaming. This response was made after Evolution  Gaming announced today an offer of 0.1306 Evolution Gaming shares for each share in NetEnt.

The Offer values each share in NetEnt to SEK 79.93 and all shares in NetEnt to approximately SEK 19.6 billion – €1.86bn (  based on closing prices on 23 June 2020 and 33,660,000 shares of series A and 212,798,035 shares of series B in NetEnt, less 1,000,000 B-shares owned by the Company. )

The recommendation made by NetEnt in respect of the offer from Evolution Gaming which can be read in full here, reads: “In the board’s opinion, NetEnt has a proven and well-defined strategy going forward. However, the board views a combination of NetEnt and Evolution Gaming as positive and believes it to be strategically sound, and the share consideration allows the Company’s shareholders to take part of the combined accelerated growth story and combination benefits.”

The combination of NetEnt and Evolution Gaming would create a leading B2B provider in online casino. The board believes there are a number of strategic benefits to NetEnt from combining its operations with Evolution Gaming.”

The acceptance period for the Offer is expected to commence on or around 17 August 2020 and expire on or around 26 October 2020, subject to any extensions. Evolution Gaming has stated that it will not increase the Offer. Accordingly, the price in the Offer is final under the Takeover Rules.

Simon Wright

Simon Wright has been both a player and an observer of the online casino industry for over 15 years. His knowledge of the online casino industry – to include sports is massive. Not many folks have the experience or his knowledge about online gambling. His adoration of football is also noted. He has painted his house blue (Chelsea) and annoys his neighbors with local football songs on game days.