Evolution receives approval for recommended public offer to NetEnt shareholders

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CMA) announced on Monday its approval of Evolution’s acquisition of NetEnt. Consequently, the condition regarding the receipt of all necessary competition approvals has been fulfilled. The other conditions for completion of the Offer, which are included in the offer document that was published on 20 August 2020, remain unchanged and are still applicable.

Evolution announced on June 24 a recommended public offer to the shareholders of NetEnt to sell all their shares in NetEnt to Evolution in exchange for 0.1306 Evolution shares for each share in NetEnt. The offer includes both the unlisted shares of series A and shares of series B that are admitted to trading on Nasdaq Stockholm.

The offer is conditional upon the receipt of all necessary approvals from relevant authorities. Among others the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority and the UK Competition and Markets Authority. On 12 October 2020, Evolution published a press release stating that the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (Office for Competition) on 29 September 2020 announced its approval of Evolution’s acquisition of NetEnt and that the CMA’s process was expected to continue up to and including 16 November 2020 (the so-called phase 1).

The acceptance period for the Offer expires on 20 November 2020. Assuming that the Offer is declared unconditional no later than around 23 November 2020, settlement is expected to commence around 1 December 2020. Evolution reserves the right to extend the acceptance period for the Offer and to postpone the settlement date.