The anticipated public offering of Novomatic shares on the Frankfurt stock exchange which was to happen before the start of October has now been postponed a company representative said without giving more details.
It was a chance for investors to be involved in a company that was valued at around €5 billion but now the company says it does not expect to offer an IPO till 2018 sometime.
Much of the reason for the delay is that Novomatic is concerned with the new laws in Germany that restrict the number of gaming machines and locations of them impacting on the major network of gaming machines Novomatic operate in the country.
Although Novomatic is thought of as a supplier of machines only 40% of its revenues come from actual manufacturing, with the majority coming from operating gambling halls in Germany and several other locations around the world.
Novomatic expected the impact of the new German law to have a quicker effect on its bottom line than it had and the company are concerned potential shareholders will worry about this until the full impact has taken effect.
Novomatic which is owned by the family of its billionaire founder Johann Graf reported a 29% drop in its first half yearly results saying that tax rises in Austria and Italy along with the German gaming law changes had seriously affected its profits for the period.
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