Enlabs has acquired a further tranche of shares in Global Gaming, triggering the threshold for the Latvian operator to make a bid to acquire the business outright.
Enlabs has acquired 9,878,086 shares in Global Gaming, priced at SEK11 per share, which it intends to pay for 50% with cash, and 50% by issuing new Enlabs shares.
This takes its holding in the Ninja Casino operator from 29.89% to 54.06% of all shares and votes.
As a result it is obliged to make a public offer to acquire the remaining shares of the business within four weeks, which it fully intends to do.
It plans to offer Global Gaming’s other shareholders the opportunity to transfer their shares to Enlabs for a consideration of SEK11 per Global Gaming share. This represents a 34% premium on Global Gaming’s average trading price over the last 90 days. Enlabs said it would not increase this offer.
Over the year to date, Enlabs has steadily increased its stake in Global Gaming, acquiring 11,300,000 shares in the business in June on top of the 920,028 shares it already held. This took its holding to 29.9% of the operator’s issued shares, making it the business’ largest shareholder.
That in turn gave Enlabs the right to put forward a number of proposed appointments to the Global Gaming board. After these were approved, Enlabs chair Niklas Braathen joined the board, alongside finance professional Christian Rasmussen, lawyer Michael Niklasson and Jonas Bertilsson, chief executive of investment company Rugosa.
Per Enlabs’ wishes, Arne Reinemo, a director of Global since May this year, was reappointed to the board.
For the first half of the year, Enlabs saw operations disrupted by novel coronavirus (Covid-19), with authorities in its core Latvian market shutting down gambling across all channels from 8 April to 10 June. This resulted in revenue falling 9.9% to €16.6m (£15.0m/$19.6m).
In its report for the period, the operator’s managing director for Central Eastern Europe Dainis Niedra described the Global investment as an “important milestone” for the business.
“Enlabs and Global Gaming complement each other well as we both operate on the same markets in Finland and Estonia,” Niedra explained. “Global Gamings brand NinjaCasino is one of the best-known brands in the gaming industry and are pioneers of pay and play technology.”
Global Gaming, which added an Altenar-powered sportsbook to Ninja Casino this week, saw first half revenue revenue fall significantly year-on-year, in part due to the business being shut out of its core Swedish market. However, the operator significantly reduced its net loss for the first half, having returned to profit in the second quarter.
