Roxy Palace's Ownership

Kindred Group PLC the Swedish online gaming company who were known as Unibet has agreed to buy U.K. rival 32Red Plc for 175.6 million pounds ($219 million), the latest deal in a wave of betting industry companies consolidation.

The Roxy Palace Owners

Kindred will pay 196 pence a share for the owner of the Roxy Palace online casino brand, which is 16 percent above the last closing price for 32Red, whose share price had upped in the last three weeks with takeover speculation. The debt-funded offer is 40 percent more than the average price in the last three months, Kindred said in a statement Thursday.

The takeover continues a surge of merge-and-acquisition moves across the gaming industry, where companies need an additional scale to meet increasing obligations of tax and regulation. Kindred hasn’t done a deal since acquiring the online gambling business of StanJames in 2015. In 32Red, the Swedish company is gaining a business that’s long been regarded as a potential target.

“At first glance, this deal does seem to make strategic and financial sense,” David Jennings, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers, said in a note. “We expect to see further consolidation in the gaming space this year based on the same types of motive that have driven this deal, namely scope to build scale, diversify regulatory risk and improve efficiency.”

32Red shares then rose 16 percent to 200 pence in early London trading, matching the value of the offer and a dividend of 4 pence a share to which shareholders are entitled. Kindred gained 2.3 percent to 85.45 kronor ($9.52) in Stockholm.

Close to Completion

The takeover is already close to getting over the line, with shareholders owning about 71 percent of 32Red’s stock having given irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer. With the exception of one investor owning 2.8 percent of the stock, all those undertakings will remain in place even in the event of a counter bid. The offer is based upon Kindred gaining acceptance of 75 percent.

“We’re optimistic we will be over 75 percent in a short space of time,” Kindred Group Chief Executive Officer Henrik Tjaernstroem said on a conference call. He declined to comment on whether 32Red had attracted rival interest, though the U.K. company’s CEO Ed Ware said such a business “is always of interest to lots of people.”

Ware declined to comment on whether he will remain with the business after the takeover.

About Roxy Palace

Roxy Palace is a UK-based online gaming company licensed in the UK and Gibraltar. The business reported net revenues of ₤10.1 million with a gross profit of ₤3.4m for 2014.

Roxy Palace was founded in 2002 and has customers in 6 different countries and has a membership in excess of 230,000 players worldwide. The Casino uses the Microgaming platform and also offers various casino products including slots, blackjack, and roulette.