Playtech suitor TTB Partners declines to make a takeover offer

A boutique investment firm in the running to purchase Playtech has declared that it has no intention to put forward an offer.

Hong Kong-based TTB Partners had been given until 5pm tomorrow by the City Takeover Panel to reveal whether it would make a bid for the gambling software developer or walk away.

Discussions over a possible takeover of Playtech by TTB were first confirmed back in early February following the failure of a deal involving Australian slot machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure.

Talks progressed very slowly, with analysts at Peel Hunt once describing them as operating at the pace of a ‘council of snails,’ which they claimed may have been due to market volatility.

Yet due to ‘challenging underlying market conditions,’ TTB said it would not submit a proposal, though the group added that it remained supportive of Playtech’s strategy, business prospects, and the company’s management.

Following the announcement, Playtech shares tumbled by 18.2 per cent to £4.22 on Thursday, making the firm the second-biggest faller on the mid-cap FTSE 250 Index, behind the Danish consumer review website Trustpilot.

Current and former Playtech chief executives Mor Weizer and Tom Hall said: ‘It is disappointing that our proposed involvement with the TTB investor group has not evolved into a formal offer for Playtech.

‘Challenging global economic and market conditions which were not present in February made it impossible to create the right structure for a new company.’

Yet while the prospective takeover has failed, Playtech reported an ‘excellent’ performance during the first half of the financial year, driven partly by healthy results from Snaitech, an Italian sports betting operator.

The group noted impressive results across both its main business-to-business and business-to-consumer arms, with the former division buoyed by ‘very strong momentum’ in the Americas.

As a result, the Isle of Man-based firm, whose clients have comprised some of the UK’s largest bookmakers, including Ladbrokes, Betfair and William Hill, expects to post first-half adjusted underlying earnings of over €200million.

Mor Weizer said the company ‘carries strong momentum going into H2 2022 and continues to perform very well across its core B2B and B2C businesses.

‘This performance reflects the quality of our market-leading technology offering and the hard work and commitment of our talented team.

‘We remain confident in our long-term growth prospects and, in particular, our ability to benefit from the structured agreements that are already allowing Playtech to access newly opened gambling markets.’

Founded in Estonia in 1999 by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, Playtech develops software for online gaming applications ranging from fixed-odds arcade games to internet poker, bingo and sports betting.

As well as famous gambling businesses, the group has also created games for the media conglomerates News Corp and Warner Bros, the latter of which gave it a contract to make slot games based on DC Comics movies.

It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and has offices in 24 countries employing around 6,400 people, according to the company’s website.