William Hill shareholders approve Caesars takeover bid
Extraordinary meeting at bookmaker's London HQ sees 87% of shareholders vote in favour of £2.9bn deal
William Hill shareholders have approved a £2.9bn takeover bid from Caesars Entertainment in a vote at the bookmaker’s London headquarters.
At an extraordinary meeting of William Hill shareholders, 87% voted to approve the deal as 13% voted against.
A total of 581,793,399 votes were cast, with 1,229,303 votes withheld.
Hills’ board of directors had already consented to the takeover after directors irrevocably voted in favour of the deal in October.
“The William Hill directors consider that the terms of the acquisition are in the best interests of the William Hill shareholders as a whole,” Hills said last month.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Hills’ largest shareholder – Betfred owner Fred Done – would give the multi-billion-pound deal his blessing.
“We are pleased to have received William Hill shareholder support for our recommended cash offer,” Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg said.
“We continue to work towards satisfying the remaining regulatory conditions and look forward to completing the transaction next year and integrating William Hill US into our Caesars sports betting and igaming franchise,” Reeg added.
Under the terms of the scheme document, a court hearing will take place no later than 14 days after regulatory approvals are received.
Investigations into the deal are expected to be conducted by the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) and the US-based Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to examine the merger on anti-trust grounds.
Dealing in William Hill shares will be allowed until one day after the scheme court hearing date, with Hills shares being disabled from the CREST dealing system at 6pm.
The scheme itself will become effective two days after the court hearing takes place, with Hills shares being delisted from the London Stock Exchange.
The intended long-stop date, or the date by which the scheme must become effective, has been confirmed as 31 December 2021, although this can be extended on the acceptance of both parties.
The vote ends months of press and investor speculation about potential bidders for William Hill following the initial offer from Caesars in September.
However, speculation about the future of the operator’s non-US assets is set to continue after Caesars confirmed it would look to divest the international business.