New York-based investment fund Standard General has put forward a revised proposal to acquire the entire Sportech business, having had a number of initial offers turned down last month.
The new proposal is based on an offer of 32.5 pence per Sportech share, up from the most recent offer of 28.5 pence per share that was rejected at the start of November.
On the basis of this revised proposal, the Sportech has agreed to share certain information with Standard General as part of a focused due diligence exercise. This, Sportech said, would put Standard General in a position to announce a firm intention to make an offer.
Standard General must inform Sportech if it intends to make a firm offer by 17 December at the latest, though Sportech may choose to extend this deadline.
Sportech also noted that there is no certainty a formal offer will be put forward by Standard General.
At the time of writing, Sportech’s shares were trading at a buying price of 30.4 pence per share, having opened at 29.4 pence.
In response to the new proposal, BetMakers Technology Group has clarified is position on the matter, having this week entered into a conditional agreement to acquire Sportech’s Global Tote business for a total cash consideration of £30.9m (€34.2m/$41.6m).
BetMakers said this agreement is binding and that Sportech’s board had already agreed to recommend its offers to shareholders, with a circular set to be sent to convene a meeting to approve the acquisition.
Sportech had been due to hold a general meeting in the week commencing 21 December to discuss and vote on the matter.
Sportech’s Global Tote business provides pari-mutuel technology and services to horse race betting operators. This includes the Americas Tote business, which provides betting solutions, hardware and operational services to customers in the US, Canada and Latin America.
The deal also covers Sportech’s North America-facing white label digital betting solutions business, UK and European Tote operations, as well as the Quantum Tote betting engine.
BetMakers had already received firm commitments to raise AU$50m under a share placement scheme to help finance its proposed acquisition of the Global Tote business.
BetMakers plans to place 83.3m new fully paid ordinary shares at an offer price of A$0.60 each for institutional investors.
The deal had been expected to complete in the first half of 2021.
