La Française des Jeux ramps up Kindred Group shareholding to 98.6%
French operator reports increased ownership of Unibet parent company ahead of planned squeeze-out procedure
La Française des Jeux (FDJ) has increased its shareholding in Kindred Group to 98.60% to further strengthen its position after acquiring the Unibet parent company earlier this month.
FDJ officially snapped up Kindred in a €2.5bn deal on 3 October after 195,659,291 Kindred Swedish Depository Receipts (SDRs) were tendered at SEK130 per share, or 90.66% of Kindred’s capital.
The French state-owned operator had acquired a further 2.4 million SDRs from Kindred shareholder Veralda earlier this year, equating to 1.11% of group capital.
The combined 91.77% took FDJ past the 90% share capital mark, which was required for the acquisition to complete.
FDJ has now added a further 6.83% of share capital after 14,734,917 new SDRs were tendered.
On 3 October, FDJ extended its offer to Kindred shareholders that had yet to tender their SDRs through to 18 October on the same terms.
As a result, FDJ will now control a 98.60% shareholding in Kindred, with a settlement on the extension period expected to take place on 29 October.
As the operator now holds more than 90% of Kindred’s shares, FDJ confirmed it intends to request the implementation of a squeeze-out procedure and acquire all the remaining shares in Kindred.
Once that squeeze-out is complete, Kindred’s SDRs will delist from the Nasdaq Stockholm.
Last week, FDJ and Kindred both reported Q3 earnings results, with the latter providing a brief market update ahead of full disclosure this Friday, 25 October.
In FDJ’s case, the company reported a 14.2% year-on-year (YoY) jump in Q3 revenue to €669m, with its lottery division accounting for the lion’s share of revenue with €495m.
Kindred said its Q3 performance was “in line with expectations” ahead of the release of its full report, with revenue expected to land at £294.5m.
When FDJ completed the acquisition, it said Kindred would sit alongside its existing online sports betting and poker operations, as well as horseracing brand ZEturf, to account for around 30% of group revenue.
A majority 64% of FDJ’s revenue is expected to come from its French monopoly on lottery and retail sports betting.