April 27 has been declared as the deadline for an off-market offer to public investors in slot machine maker Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd that would see Kjerulf Ainsworth – a son of the founder Len Ainsworth – boost his holding in its ordinary shares. It is his second offer to acquire shares of the firm.
The information on the deadline for the latest exercise was outlined in a Monday filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, which included a letter from lawyers acting for Mr Kerjulf Ainsworth.
It noted that his current voting power in the gaming technology firm was 8.24 percent, and that he currently had a relevant interest in nearly 27.75-million shares.
His AUD1.30 (US$0.89 currently) per share offer is for 5.5 percent of the group’s fully-paid ordinary shares. It had been announced to the bourse on March 11.
Mr Kjerulf Ainsworth had stated in his March 11 announcement: “As with my previous proportional takeover bid” in October for 2.9 percent of the group’s shares, which “closed on January 30, 2026, the [new] offer will deliver an attractive premium relative to historical trading prices in shares for a portion of each shareholder’s investment in Ainsworth.”
In August last year, Ainsworth’s majority owner, Austrian gaming equipment supplier Novomatic AG, made an “unconditional” takeover bid of AUD1.00 per share for the shares that it did not control in Ainsworth.
It was subsequently widely reported in the Australian media that Mr Kjerulf Ainsworth had been opposed to Novomatic’s buyout offer to the minority stockholders, on the basis that Novomatic undervalued the firm.
On February 6, Novomatic’s own offer lapsed, failing to secure the 75-percent shareholding threshold needed to take the Australian firm private. At the time, Novomatic held 67.4 percent.
