Takeover talks between Playtech and its second largest shareholder TTB Partners are still ongoing after nearly four months, the gaming software firm said on Friday.
The London-listed company, which in February rejected a £2.1billion offer by Australia’s Aristocrat Leisure, has received interest from multiple firms.
Playtech has now been locked in talks with Hong Kong based TTB for 15 weeks, but has reassured investors that discussions ‘are ongoing’ and ‘progress continues to be made’.
Takeover talks: But Playtech said other options were also still on the table
A ‘put up or shut up’ deadline has now been announced, however, with TTB given until 17 June to make an offer or walk away.
‘There continues to be no certainty that an offer will be made, or the terms on which any offer may be made,’ the firm said.
‘The Independent Committee is conscious that TTB has been considering a possible offer for Playtech for 15 weeks.’
Playtech shares jumped 8.9 per cent to 550p in morning trading on Friday.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said talks between the companies were progressing at the pace of a ‘council of snails’, but remained credible.
‘After 15 weeks it is hard to imagine the pace of that progress, but perhaps volatile markets are the cause,’ they said.
‘However, we believe that Playtech’s CEO continues to be involved with the bidding consortium (absent any statement today to the contrary) and this gives some credibility to the possibility that a bid at an acceptable level may yet emerge.’
Options other than a takeover are still on the table, with the company saying that the independent board committee was continuing to ‘explore options for maximising shareholder value’.
Peel Hunt analysts believe these could include the sale of individual parts of the business.
‘Entain would seem to be a fairly obvious buyer for the Italian B2C business, perhaps with a technology contract or quasi-equity interest retained by Playtech,’ they said.
‘The TTB consortium could be a buyer for the Asia-facing business, leaving core Playtech as a rare B2B technology provider of scale ripping up the road in Latin America in particular, and with a transaction to extract more value from its interests in Mexico still on the cards.’
It comes as Playtech reiterated that its strong performance has continued through April and into May.
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