Shareholders of evoke have voted overwhelmingly to approve the £243m all-share acquisition of the embattled business by Athens-listed Bally’s Intralot.
At a court meeting held on 17 August, two months after June’s announcement of the takeover, 30 scheme shareholders voted for the deal to go through, while one voted against the transaction.
A general meeting also took place on the same day, resulting in 99.63% of shares voting in favour of the deal and 0.37% opposed to it. In total, 269,432,165 evoke shares voted.
The deal includes the debt evoke incurred from leveraged purchase of William Hill’s non-US assets in 2022, meaning the total enterprise value of evoke is £2.2bn.
Bally’s Intralot first submitted a 32p-per-share offer in January, though this bid was rejected, a month after the evoke board initiated a strategic review with a view to potentially selling the business.
The Athens-listed operator then upped its offer to 50p a share, before 52p per share was accepted after the 18 May deadline to strike a deal was pushed back to 8 June.
The transaction is expected to complete in Q1 2027, subject to closing and regulatory conditions.
Bally’s Intralot reported a 199% year on year (YoY) surge in revenue to €544.2m (£465.8m) for Q2.
Commenting on the evoke deal in the financial report, CEO Robeson Reeves said: “Our accomplishments during the quarter strengthen our confidence in the value we can create together.
“The same playbook of cost discipline and organic growth translates directly to a business of evoke’s scale and customer reach.”
Meanwhile, Bally’s Corporation, the Rhode Island-based casino company which has a majority stake in Bally’s Intralot, saw its shares plunge by a quarter yesterday, 17 August, after management raised doubts about debt covenants.
Despite group revenue climbing 20% YoY to $792.2m (£585.8m), filings submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 14 August said the firm “does not project that it would satisfy the liquidity maintenance requirement” or the “consolidated net leverage ratio covenant” to its lenders.
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Acquisition of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green parent company receives 99.6% backing at general meeting
The post Evoke shareholders give thumbs up to Bally’s Intralot all-share takeover first appeared on EGR Intel.