Rank Group Plc recently made a bid of £115 million to take over Stride Gaming and now, the London Stock Exchange listed Rank Group has updated stakeholders to confirm that their bid for the London AIM-listed Stride has met the approval of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
The UKGC popped the takeover bid under the microscope after Daub Alderney, a subsidiary of Stride Gaming was fined £7.1 million back in November 2018 for a series of AML breaches and during the scrutinising, the UKGC also identified instances where they failed to identify where the source of funds were coming from.
Eyes Down for A Full House:
Thankfully, the final hurdle in Rank’s bid have been approved and this deal will further enlarge their UK digital portfolio. Summer 2019 saw the sanction of an all-cash purchase for assets belonging to stride Gaming and these included the network’s popular brands; Kitty Bingo, Bingo Extra, Lucky Pants Bingo, Lucky VIP, Regal Wins and Spin & Win (online casino games website).
The timetable set out before shareholders reveals that the final regulatory hurdle will be on the 2nd October at the Royal Court of Jersey, and all being well, Rank anticipate the transaction to be signed, sealed and delivered by 4th October; the same date that Stride will cease trading on the London AIM exchange and this will further lead to a complete cancellation of its AIM admission on 7th October.
The Real Deal:
In May, Rank; the owner of Mecca Bingo, tabled a 28% premium offer for Stride based on their share price and this was the equivalent of £1.51p per share to acquire 100% of their assets. Stride Gaming are considered to be the UK’s largest online bingo network and the bid was led by Chief Executive, John O’Reilly, as part of his ‘corporate transformation programme’ which will focus on improvements within corporate efficiencies and boost shareholder value.
The new executive team headed by O’Reilly have their sights set on expanding their digital assets. Not only that, but the new programme also saw the London-listed group delivering on expected cost savings in Q3 2018/2019 updates and this was despite Mecca venues being down 1% on like for like revenues for the quarter. However, growth was noticeable via Mecca digital (online), which was up 10%.
Rank Group CEO, John O’Reilly: “We have long been impressed with the quality of the Stride management, technology and operations, which, we believe, offer significant opportunities to create value when combined with the Rank brands, customer-base and infrastructure. The joining of our businesses will accelerate delivery of Rank’s Transformation Plan and create one of the UK’s leading online gaming businesses.”
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