Playtech investors reject Finalto sale to Barinboim, consider Gopher $250M offer

Playtech announced on Wednesday that the company’s shareholders voted against the Barinboim Group-led, Israeli private equity consortium’s $210 million offer to acquire Finalto, detailing that 68.3% of the casted votes were against the proposal to sell the trading technology division to the Consortium, while the remaining 31.7% were in favor.

“At the General Meeting held earlier today, the resolution to approve the disposal of Finalto to the Consortium was not passed,” Playtech wrote in a Regulatory News Service filing with the London Stock Exchange, reports Finance Magnates.

The vote is a win for Playtech’s second-biggest shareholder, Hong Kong-based Gopher Investments, which is a 4.97% Playtech shareholder, which made a $250 million all-cash offer for Finalto in July, with an additional conditional $10 million break fee, which had previously been rejected.

London-listed Playtech said it was now seeking to engage with Gopher regarding the sale of Finalto, which has been growing rapidly as market volatility brought on by the pandemic made it a lucrative target.

Playtech had said it would have to pay the Barinboim consortium $8.8 million if its investors vote against the deal that was agreed between the two parties in May, reports Reuters.