Entain CEO, Jette Nygaard-Anderson, says the company is entering a “hugely exciting and fast-growing market” announcing a £750m deal to buy Polish operator STS.
The offer will be priced at PLN 24.80 per share, with the enterprise value of STS approximately £690m.
Entain will fund its 75 per cent proportion of the consideration via an equity placing and a separate retail offer through the PrimaryBid platform. Its partner, EMMA Capital, is to fund its 25 per cent of the consideration, as per shareholder arrangements.
STS CEO Mateusz Juroszek and his father, Zbigniew Juroszek, hold around 70 per cent of STS’ share capital through their family foundations and “have entered into a binding agreement to irrevocably accept the offer,” Entain added.
The Juroszek Foundations will, following completion, reinvest a proportion of the proceeds into Entain CEE in return for a 10 per cent stake in Entain’s European arm.
Nygaard-Anderson added the transaction is “perfectly aligned” with EntainCEE’s strategy “and our wider M&A strategy” of “acquiring high quality businesses with leading positions in attractive, growing and regulated markets.”
Juroszek, who is joining the EntainCEE board, noted Entain has “already made a significant investment in this region through SuperSport in Croatia” and that the company “shares our ambition and vision for its future.”
Entain said the acquisition is expected to prove profitable in the first full year of ownership. Although, up to half of the 10 per cent stake the Juroszek Foundations are set to hold in Entain CEE “is subject to clawback,” the company said, if STS does not achieve “certain financial hurdles” in 2023.
Entain said that based on analyst consensus for the year to 31 December 2024, STS is tipped to generate EBITDA of PLN 333m, an enterprise multiple of 11x.
The tender offer document is expected to be published in mid-July, with the acceptance period scheduled to commence “shortly afterwards,” the statement continued.
Radim Haluza, will continue to lead STS and SuperSport.
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