Austrian gaming equipment supplier Novomatic AG has again extended – this time by nearly two months, to January 30 – the deadline on its takeover bid for Australian slot maker Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd. That is according to information disclosed by the target company in a Wednesday filing to the Australian Securities Exchange.
The offer will now remain open until 7pm, Sydney, New South Wales time, on January 30 next year, “unless further extended or withdrawn,” stated a Wednesday announcement.
The previous cutoff point had been 7pm Sydney time on Wednesday (December 3).
Novomatic in August made an “unconditional” takeover bid of AUD1.00 (US$0.661 currently) per share for the shares that it does not currently control in Ainsworth.
The Novomatic group and its founder and owner, Johann Graf, control 61.5 percent of Ainsworth’s shares.
In mid-September an independent board committee of Ainsworth “unanimously” recommended that Ainsworth’s shareholders accept Novomatic’s takeover bid.
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 stated at the time that Novomatic did “not intend to accept” that offer from Mr Ainsworth.
Also in October, Ainsworth’s then chief operating officer, Ryan Comstock, became acting chief executive, after the resignation of Harald Neumann.
