European gaming equipment maker Novomatic will increase its stake in Casinos Austria with shares it will soon acquire from MTB Privatstiftung and Leipnik-Lundenburger Invest Beteiligungs.
Gaming equipment maker Novomatic is set to acquire a stake of almost 30 percent in Casinos Austria AG.
The Austria-based company announced it has made binding offers to MTB Privatstiftung and to Leipnik-Lundenburger Invest Beteiligungs AG (LLI). Privatstifung has 16.8 percent shares in Casinos Austria, while LLI has 29.6 percent shares in MEDIAL Beteiligungs GmbH, which equates to an indirect equity stake of 11.34 percent in Casinos Austria.
“By means of these transactions we will be able to contribute as a solid Austrian partner with international expertise and become a part of a sustained shareholding structure of Casinos Austria AG,” Novomatic CEO Harald Neumann said in a statement.
Both shareholders have already accepted the offers, according to Novomatic, but the transactions are still subject to “various permissions governed by public law as well as by company law, and to formal approval requirements.”
Until then, Neumann said the company is also interested in any further Casinos Austria shares that will be offered “at an acceptable price.”
Novomatic has also increased its minority stake in Casino Austria’s lottery division, Osterreichische Lotterien GmbH (OLG). In a statement on its website, Novomatic said it now indirectly holds an 18 percent equity stake in OLG through third party investment companies.
In June 2015, the gaming giant acquired 7.94 percent stake in OLG from private investment firm B&C Industrieholding. This was followed by the acquisition of shares owned by LTB Beteiligungs Gmbh and RSV Beteiligungs this month.
LTB and RSV, along with national broadcaster Osterreichische Rundfunk (ORF), are stakeholders of Lotto-Toto Holding Gesellschaft, which owns 32 percent of the lottery business.
“We are delighted to increase our stake in Osterreichische Lotterien GmbH and thus to further support the company as a sustainable and stable domestic co-shareholder,” Neumann said.
OLG’s parent company, Casinos Austria, is partially state-owned with 33.2 percent stakes held by the government’s investment arm. According to Bloomberg, Casinos Austria operates draw-based lotteries, instant lotteries, football pools, and interactive gaming and video lottery terminals, among other things, in Austria. Overseas, Casinos Austria has interests in casinos in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Palestine, Switzerland, and a number of European Union countries.
