Investment group reveals plans to fully own Fortuna Entertainment Group

Penta Investments, the majority shareholder in the Central and Eastern Europe facing Fortuna Entertainment online and land gambling group, has announced plans to make a buy-out offer to minority shareholders in order to obtain full control of the group.

Penta said it plans to withdraw its Fortuna shares from public trading on the Prague and Warsaw Stock Exchanges this week in order to make the offer. Ceska sporitelna will manage the buyout.

Minority shareholders, who own almost 32 percent in Fortuna, will be offered Kc98.69 and PLN15.43 per share, respectively. The price of Fortuna’s shares currently stands at Kc108.80 on the Prague bourse. Penta’s subsidiary Fortbet Holdings Limited, registered in Cyprus, holds 68.25 percent in Fortuna.

Analysts are of the opinion that the pricing is low. Fortuna’s shares dropped by 5 percent to Kc103.2 on the Prague bourse on the release of Penta’s plan. In total, 16.5 million Fortuna shares are on the market.

“Penta wants to focus on [Fortuna’s] further intensive development, in particular on the markets in Central and South-Eastern Europe,” the investment company said in a statement. “These ambitious plans will influence Fortuna’s ability to pay dividends.”

The buyout of all the remaining shares on both markets is to start on April 21 after gaining the required permission of both markets, and is scheduled to end around June 20.

Penta acquired its stake in Fortuna 11 years ago and has influenced the change to a modern, unified brand active in several national markets both online and in retail. over the past few months Fortuna has strengthened its position in the region and expanded to the markets in Romania, Croatia and Spain.

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