Austrian gaming equipment supplier Novomatic AG has extended by a month, to December 3, the deadline for its takeover bid of Australian slot maker Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd. That is according to information disclosed in a Monday filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Novomatic in August made an “unconditional” takeover bid of AUD1.00 (US$0.653) per share for the shares that it does not currently control in Ainsworth.
Monday’s update said Novomatic had made a change to its takeover bid by extending the period, “such that the offer will now remain open for acceptance until 7pm – Sydney time – on 3 December 2025, unless further extended or withdrawn”.
The Novomatic group and its founder and owner, Johann Graf, control 61.5 percent of Ainsworth’s shares.
The increase was effected via on-market acquisitions of Ainsworth shares, as well as acquisition of relevant interest in shares as a result of acceptances regarding the off-market takeover offer made by Novomatic.
Ainsworth had said that in mid-September that an independent board committee of the company “unanimously” recommended that Ainsworth’s shareholders accept Novomatic’s takeover bid.
The committee said at the time that the offer price represented “a significant premium” to the trading price of Ainsworth’s shares, and provided “full liquidity through an all-cash offer”.
It also flagged that the independent expert appointed to advise on the deal had “concluded that the takeover offer is fair and reasonable to Ainsworth shareholders, in the absence of a superior proposal”.
In late October, Ainsworth said it had received a “proportionate offer” from Kjerulf Ainsworth, a son of the company’s founder, for a takeover of “2.9 percent of each shareholder’s shares in Ainsworth”. Mr Ainsworth said he was offering AUD1.30 per share.
Ainsworth said at the time that Novomatic did “not intend to accept the proposed proportionate offer,” meaning “the maximum number of shares Kjerulf Ainsworth could potentially acquire” under his proposal “would be less than approximately 1 percent of the total number of shares in Ainsworth”.
It had already been widely reported in the Australian media that Mr Ainsworth has been opposed to Novomatic’s buyout offer to the minority stockholders, on the basis that Novomatic undervalues the Australian slot maker.
