Rank Group offers £114m for Stride Gaming
Things are hotting up with talks between Rank Group and Stride Gaming. Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casino owner Rank Group have been said to have reached an agreement to take over their rivals Stride Gaming who own Regal Wins, Spin and Win, Kitty Bingo and Magical Vegas.
Stride Gaming are the 3rd largest operator of online bingo in the UK, and if the deals goes ahead it will put Rank Group in good stead amongst their rivals.
Since the offer was made Stride Gaming shares have risen by almost 25%, having previously halved in the last year. It was announced in February that they would be taking a strategic review of their business with the possibility of putting it up for sale.
Stride Gaming Chairman, Nigel Payne commented- “Despite Stride’s strong market position, ownership of its own leading technology and excellent long term growth potential, the board recognises the scale of the mounting regulatory and fiscal pressures which the UK gaming sector is facing,”
“It is also concerned that investor sentiment to Stride is likely to continue to be negatively impacted by these external pressures for some time.
“Following the announcement of Stride’s strategic review in February 2019, Stride had approaches from a number of parties, in addition to Rank. After extensive discussions, the board concluded that a combination with Rank has significant strategic logic and its offer of 151p per share represents fair value for Stride shareholders in the current environment.”
Rank chief executive John O’Reilly added: “We are pleased to make this offer for Stride, which is a very complementary business to Rank.
“We have long been impressed with the quality of the Stride management, technology and operations, which, we believe, offer significant opportunities to create value when combined with the Rank brands, customer-base and infrastructure.”
