Aristocrat are looking to put their failed bid for Playtech behind them. Their CEO and managing director Trever Croker has given details of their plans to move into online real money gaming.
Earlier this month, Aristocrat saw their takeover bid for Playtech rejected. Only 55% of Playtech shareholders voted in favour of the takeover at a meeting held on February 3. That fell below the 75% that was required to approve the deal that the Playtech board had recommended be accepted.
The announcement of the planned move into real money gaming (RMG) was made at Aristocrat’s annual general meeting. There will be a new RMG operating business, adding to the slot machine and social gaming business Pixel United that already exist.
This new brand will be run by Mitchell Bowen, who is the CEO of Aristocrat Gaming. He’ll be replaced in that position by Hector Fernandez.
Croker said that “Achieving a scaled position in online RMG will be a medium-term effort.” Sustained investment “over a number of years” will be required if it is to become a success. He believes that is possible though as history shows that Aristocrat “knows how to successfully scale businesses.”
He added that the company has “clear advantages in our powerful product portfolio, strong customer and regulator relationships, full financial optionality and strategic rigour.” More details on their “strategy and key priorities” will be given in May. That’s when Aristocrat reveal their half-year results.
Financial Report
They will hope that those results follow in the footsteps of their impressive figures for the financial year that ended on 30 September 2021. Those reported revenue of $4.7bn (£4.19 bn), a 14% increase from the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation were $1.5 bn, a rise of 43%. Their profit before tax was $865m, that was 81% up on the previous year and just 3% below the figures for 2019 before the start of the pandemic.
Their chairman is Neil Chatfield and he said that the past year has seen the company continue to “execute our established growth strategy. They are also continuing to “invest for future growth” while “further enhancing earnings diversity and sustaining our performance momentum.”
It’s still disappointing that the planned takeover of Playtech didn’t receive approval. It’s now believed that Playtech could receive another takeover bid. This time it could be TBB Partners who aim to takeover the company.
They are the second largest shareholders in Playtech with a 4.97% stake. The highest share is in the hands of Setanta Asset Management. Previously TBB Partners had been advising Gopher Investments in their failed takeover bid for the company.
