Lottery retailer Jumbo Interactive has said it does not expect to complete its acquisition of UK external lottery manager and digital payments business StarVale Group until next year due a longer-than-expected regulatory approval process.
Jumbo entered into a deal to acquire StarVale in January this year, agreeing to pay an initial Aus$32.1m (£18.1m/€21.1m/US$22.0m) to take ownership of 100% of the business.
The agreement also included up to $8.5m in deferred payments, payable subject to StarVale achieving certain earnings targets.
Jumbo agreed the deal via its newly incorporated, wholly-owned entity Jumbo Interactive UK, saying it would further expand its global growth strategy, following the purchase of UK-based Gatherwell in December 2019 and Canada-based Stride Management.
Should the deal go ahead, StarVale would form part of Jumbo’s Managed Services business segment, along with Gatherwell and Stride
Initially, Jumbo said it had expected to receive regulatory clearance from the Great Britain Gambling Commission before the end of the current financial year. However, Jumbo said this is now not expected to occur until the first quarter of 2023.
As such, the deal is now expected to complete early next year.
“Jumbo remains confident of obtaining the relevant regulatory approvals and broadening its Managed Services footprint in the UK not-for-profit sector,” the Jumbo board said.
UK-based StarVale provides services to over 850,000 active lottery players across over 45 charities and not-for-profit organisations, many of which are major UK charities. StarVale also owns DDPay Ltd, a digital payments business that facilitates Direct Debit payments and solutions to StarVale’s weekly lottery clients.
