Bally’s boosts funds for Gamesys acquisition with $671.4m share offering

Bally’s Corporation has completed a share rights offering worth $671.4m in proceeds from a combination of retail and institutional investors.

The US casino operator issued a total of 12.65 million shares of common stock via the offering, which included 1.65 million additional subscribers from the firm’s bookrunner partners.

Stock was offered at a price of $55 per share with investment banks including Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Barclays acting as joint bookrunners on the share sale.

Bally’s said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the cash amount payable to Gamesys Group ahead of its £2bn ($2.75bn) purchase of the London-listed operator.

If the deal doesn’t complete, Bally’s will use the net proceeds from the share rights issue for general corporate purposes, including repayment of debts and further M&A activity.

Under the terms of the deal, Gamesys shareholders are eligible to receive either 1,850p in cash for each Gamesys share or 0.343 in new Bally’s shares.

Gamesys directors and shareholders accounting for 33.3% of the firm’s issued share capital have irrevocably undertaken to vote in favour of the combination at a forthcoming shareholder vote.

A positive vote of 75% is required to push the deal over the line.