Capital Research and Management Company reduces Kindred stake following FDJ bid

Capital Research and Management Company has reduced its stake in Kindred Group following the confirmation of a £2.1bn bid for the Unibet parent company by FDJ.

Kindred Group confirmed it had received notification from Capital Research and Management Company’s parent company, The Capital Group Companies, that it was decreasing its shareholding in the business.

The Los Angeles-based fund now holds 8.63% of the shares in the Stockholm-listed operator, as of 22 January.

The decrease in Capital Research and Management Company’s shareholding in the operator comes after the investor reached a peak stake of 15.33% of Kindred in October 2021.

That came after the fund increased its stake in Kindred from a previous standpoint of 10.53% just one month prior.

However, in July 2022, Capital Research and Management Company decreased its stake to 10.86%.

Capital Research and Management Company’s decision to offload shares in the operator comes after Kindred’s stock spiked significantly following FDJ’s bid for the business.

Kindred’s shares rose by more than 17% in early trading on the Stockholm Nasdaq on Monday 22 January.

The bid, which values Kindred a 10.9x multiple of the operator’s underlying 2023 EBITDA, represented a huge 40.1% premium on Kindred’s closing share price of SEK92.90 on Tuesday 28 November.

This was the last day of trading before the firm released its Q3 results, which showed flat revenue and an EBITDA and actives spike last Autumn.

French operator FDJ is planning to expand its online and international GGR via the acquisition, which has been backed by five shareholders that own 27.9% of Kindred’s stock.