Ironshield Capital Management has built up a 6.07% stake in evoke, as the London-listed operator continues its strategic review that could culminate in the sale of the business or certain assets sold.
Evoke announced via an RNS filing today, 31 March, that Ironshield had passed the 5% threshold whereby public companies need to inform the markets.
The investment firm, which describes itself as a “special situations investment manager focusing on stressed and distressed event driven credit situations in Europe”, secured the stake on 24 March before informing evoke on 26 March.
The 6.07% holding is split among four Ironshield funds: Special Situations L1 Masters Fund (1.71%), Special Situations L2 Masters Fund (1.29%), Credit Opportunities Fund (2.4%) and Credit Opportunities II Fund (0.67%).
Ironshield is now the fourth-largest shareholder in the William Hill, 888 and Mr Green parent company.
The Shaked family, which co-founded 888 in 1997, hold almost 20% of the stock.
Fund managers Artemis (9.94%) and Parvus (9.91%) also own significant stakes in the business.
As per its website, Ironshield “specialises in credit investing, seeking compelling risk-adjusted returns through deep expertise built across nearly two decades”.
“Ironshield Capital combines deep capital structure expertise with disciplined, scenario-based analysis to identify and price mispriced risk in credit, predominantly in Europe,” it also states.
Evoke’s share price is up almost 3% at the time of writing to nearly 35p, although the stock has slumped 27% over the past 12 months.
The operator’s market cap is just £166.6m, but its debt is around £1.8bn, largely accumulated from the £1.95bn acquisition, completed in 2022, of William Hill’s non-US assets from Caesars Entertainment.
In December, evoke announced a strategic review which could see part of all of the business sold.
Reports from Greece earlier this year linked Bally’s with a full acquisition of the business, while Betfred has been suggested as a potential acquirer of Hills’ retail estate.
Evoke will announce its full-year 2025 earnings on 29 April. In a trading update released on 18 March, the company said Q1 2026 had “started positively”.
The trading update continued: “As previously announced on 10 December 2025, the board is undertaking a review of the group’s strategic options, including the consideration of a range of potential alternatives to maximise shareholder value.
“The strategic review remains ongoing, including discussions relating to a potential sale of the group, or some of the group’s assets and/or business units. A further update will be provided as and when appropriate.”
The firm hit the headlines for the wrong reasons a day later when it emerged a malfunction in its ‘Jackpot drop’ feature saw William Hill and 888 players wrongly awarded six-figure sums.
Evoke’s shares have also been impacted by the impending UK gambling tax hikes.
Remote gaming duty will jump from 21% to 40% on Wednesday, 1 April, while remote betting duty excluding UK horseracing will increase from 15% to 25% as of April 2027.
Evoke said that once both tax hikes came into play it would face, pre-mitigation, between £125m and £135m of additional duty costs.
The post Distressed assets-focused investment firm takes 6% stake in evoke first appeared on EGR Intel.
Ironshield Capital Management builds up position in the William Hill, 888 and Mr Green parent as internal strategic review that could lead to sale drags on
The post Distressed assets-focused investment firm takes 6% stake in evoke first appeared on EGR Intel.