SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Entain Plc has this morning confirmed that it has revised its bid to acquire the TAB unit of Tabcorp Holdings, offering the ASX gambling group AUS $3.5 billion (€2.2bn) for its wagering and media division.
The revised bid is increased from Entain’s opening offer of AUS $3 billion, proposed on 2 February – with the FTSE100 firm seeking to become ‘Australia’s leading multi-channel and multi-brand gambling group’.
The board of Tabcorp Holdings refused to put forward Entain’s original bid to investors, stating that its TAB wagering and media assets had been grossly undervalued.
“Entain believes that the Revised Proposal is compelling both in terms of the value it represents for Tabcorp shareholders in cash, and certainty of deliverability,” Entain’s statement read.
Despite being circled by a number of interested suitors, thus far Entain has been the only company to formally propose a bid to acquire TAB.
Speculation continues to mount as to whether Tabcorp will proceed to divest its individual group assets, as the ASX firm faces mounting pressure to deliver investor value following its AUS $11 billion merger with Tatts Group in 2018.
Last Month, Steven Gregg, Tabcorp’s new Chairman, sanctioned a strategic review of the company to assess all corporate options. The sale of TAB and the potential demerger of Tatts lottery and keno unit were underscored as the review’s top priorities.
Nevertheless, Gregg underlined that Tabcorp’s board held no predetermined outcomes with regards to the company’s sales options, as Tabcorp had delivered better than anticipated interim results.
Despite facing continued COVID-19 impacts, the TAB wagering unit recorded a +1% revenue uplift to AUS $1.19 billion as Tabcorp placed its short term focus remained on improving TAB’s omnichannel strategy and platform infrastructure.
