A special committee of the Bally’s board of directors has announced that it has dismissed a $2.07bn takeover offer by New York-based investment firm Standard General.
The company, whose founding partner is current Bally’s chair Soo Kim, offered to purchase all of the outstanding shares that it does not already own in February of this year.
The approach would’ve seen these shares gained for $38 each, which came in at $2.07bn and represented a premium of 30 per cent to the closing price as of January 24, 2022.
Kim said: “While we are of course disappointed with the outcome of the discussions of our proposal, as we said from the outset, we intend to remain a supportive, long-term investor in the company.”
Furthermore, the company has also disclosed that its board determined that Bally’s should pursue initiating a cash tender offer for its shares, the offer of which is anticipated to involve $300m to $500m.
Lee Fenton, Bally’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The company has very substantial opportunities before it, including the integration of the Gamesys acquisition, the build-out of Bally’s North American interactive business and the continued strategic expansion of our land-based footprint in the US.
“With these opportunities in front of us, we have great confidence in the future as we move forward.”
This comes as the operator details its performance through the year’s first quarter, with revenue 64.93 per cent ahead year-on-year at $548.27m (2021: $192,26m).
This was driven by a 66.5 per cent uptick in the group’s gaming segment to $463.7m (2021: $155.27m), with revenue across the hotel, food and beverage, and retail, entertainment and other divisions also increasing to $26.93m (2021: $13.05m), $23.98m (2021: $15.5m), and $33.64m (2021: $8.42m), respectively.
Elsewhere, net loss $10.7m recorded one year ago swung to an income of $1.88m through Q1 2022, with adjusted EBITDA up 54.3 per cent to $114.95m (2021: $52.47m).
“Our casinos and resorts’ results were strong as the US consumer returned to our properties as US COVID restrictions were lifted,” Fenton added.
“International interactive revenue was down one per cent year over year on a constant currency basis due to tightened consumer spending in the UK that was offset by solid performance by our Asia business.
“North America interactive continued to invest in the rollout plan that accelerated this month with the launch of our foundational 2.0 tech stack in Arizona yesterday.”
