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La Française des Jeux (FDJ) has announced it will finalise the acquisition of Kindred Group for almost €2.5bn, after fulfilling the condition precedent of controlling more than 90 percent of the capital of Kindred.
Stéphane Pallez, chairman and CEO of the FDJ group, which operates France's and Ireland's national lottery games, said the acquisition creates a new “leading European player in competitive online betting and gambling” that “intends to pursue its strategy of sustainable and profitable growth for the benefit of all its stakeholders”.
“Kindred has strong brands, recognized technological excellence, and an attractive growth and profitability profile, which will strengthen FDJ’s strengths. The two groups also share high standards in terms of responsible gaming and a business model combining performance and responsibility,” Pallez said in an announcement on October 3.
FDJ predicts the new group will be among the top three operators in the gambling sector in Europe, based on gross gambling revenue in 2023.
At the end of the offer period ending on October 2, 195,659,291 Swedish depositary receipts (SDRs) of Kindred, representing 90.66 percent of the group's capital, had been tendered, according to the update.
FDJ had also acquired directly from Veralda 2,400,000 SDRs of Kindred, representing 1.11 percent of the group's capital.
“The settlement-delivery for Kindred shareholders who tendered their SDRs to the offer will take place from October 11 and FDJ will implement a mandatory withdrawal procedure from Nasdaq Stockholm,” according to the update.
Additionally, FDJ has extended its offer until October 18, 2024 to allow Kindred shareholders who have not tendered their shares to do so under the unchanged conditions of SEK130 per SDR.
In January 2024, FDJ made an offer, unanimously recommended by the Kindred board of directors, of SEK130 (€11.39) per share, which values the Stockholm-listed company at €2.6bn.
On February 19, 2024, the FDJ group announced that the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority had approved the “offer document” relating to the FDJ’s tender offer for Kindred Group.
France’s Consumer Authority cleared the acquisition in September.
