A busy week for Novomatic

Novomatic, a major gambling supply company headquartered in Austria, has a busy M&A program, announcing this week that it has acquired the widespread UK Talarius adult gaming centres company, and has obtained shareholder approval for its acquisition of 53 percent of the Australian gambling supplier, Ainsworth Game Technology.

Tatts, the Australian gambling group which bought Talarius eight years ago (see previous report) announced Sunday that it has sold the 153-venue adult centres chain to the UK branch of Novomatic for A$210 million (GBP 116 million), which it would use to pay down debt.

Robbie Cooke, CEO of Tatts, acknowledged that despite three years of “intense effort’ to improve the performance of the business, it had struggled whilst in the Tatts stable. In 2015, Talarius contributed less than 2 percent of group earnings, he revealed.

Talarius operates 7,500 machines across its operation, with nearly 1,000 staff and a service centre and support HQ based at Milton Keynes, north of London. The company’s best-known brands are Quicksilver, Silvers and Winners. With the adult gaming centres already under Novomatic UK’s control, this bring the UK division’s list of adult gaming centres to 244.

Novomatic UK CEO Zane Mersich said the acquisition deal worked for a number of reasons, explaining: “…it’s a great fit both in a geographical sense as well as strategically and represents another important milestone for the UK group. We are now active in every commercial aspect of the UK gaming industry and we will seek to build upon this foundation successfully in the years to come.”

In regard to the Ainsworth Game Technology acquisition, Novomatic has announced that it has received the approval of Novomatic minority shareholders and will now proceed with its negotiations to obtain a 53 percent share in the Australian company.

Spokesmen said that the relationship with AGT would accelerate the Aussie company’s development and create a stronger company with deeper product depth that would enable it to better compete against international gaming rivals.

Novomatic’s group chief executive officer Harald Neumann said that through Novomatic’s majority shareholding, AGT will benefit from collaboration across a range of markets that will be substantially positive for long-term shareholder wealth creation.

“We value the trust and support by the minority shareholders through the positive vote of approving the share transaction and will make every effort to meet their expectations,” Neumann pledged. “We will commence implementing the binding commitments as outlined in the Notice of Meeting to crystalise the expected benefits of the relationship.”

AGT chief executive officer Danny Gladstone said his negotiating team looked forward to working with Novomatic on the completion of the transaction and delivering on the expected benefits for shareholders.

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