888 Holdings Plc (LON:888), one of the world’s leading online gaming entertainment and solutions providers, announced the signing of an agreement by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Brigend Limited, for the acquisition of certain assets of Jet Management Group Limited and Jet Media Limited for consideration of £18 million. Jet is part of the group of companies headed by JPJ Group plc, which owns the Jackpotjoy brands.
Background to the Transaction
Consolidating its position as one of the leading bingo operators in the UK, 888 has acquired a portfolio of Jet’s online bingo brands, which previously operated as business-to-business (‘B2B’) brands on 888’s Dragonfish Bingo Platform. Going forward, 888 will operate these on a business-to-customer (“B2C”) basis.
Jet has been a partner of Dragonfish, the Group’s B2B Bingo division, since 2009 with brands including Costa Bingo, City Bingo and Sing Bingo. The acquisition will give the Group full control of these successful brands from a marketing perspective to support and further strengthen the Group’s position in the UK online bingo market.
Itai Pazner, Chief Executive Officer of 888 commented:
“The Group continues to deliver its stated strategy of expanding across global regulated markets. This expansion is underpinned by organic growth initiatives supported by exploring value-enhancing M&A.”
“We are pleased to announce the acquisition of this portfolio of brands which includes the well-established Costa Bingo. Having been developed on Dragonfish, the Group’s first-class B2B platform, we are confident that consolidating these brands into our existing B2C portfolio will deliver synergies and growth opportunities by applying the full extent of 888’s core capabilities in product, marketing and customer relationship management to their operations.”
Details of the Transaction
The consideration of £18 million will be satisfied all in cash, with £12 million being paid to Jet upon closing of the acquisition and the remainder of £6 million to be paid in September 2019.
Transaction Classification
The Transaction constitutes a class 2 transaction for the purposes of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing Rules (“LR”). For the purposes of LR 10.4.1 R (Notification of class 2 transactions), the value of the gross assets that are the subject of the Transaction is £18 million as at the date hereof, and the profit before tax attributable to the assets as sourced from unaudited management accounts provided to 888 by Jet is approximately £3.7 million for the year ended 31 December 2018.
