Flutter Entertainment and The Stars Group Prepare a $4.7 Billion Merger

UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has approved the mega-merger proposal that Flutter Entertainment – Paddy Power Betfair operator – and The Stars Group, which controls Sky Bet, have supposedly agreed.

CMA has granted the unconditional phase one clearance to the proposal. This will see Flutter attain all of shares in The Stars Group and they would together to create a combined business with annual revenue of $4.7 billion.

The Deal of the Decade

Flutter shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for April 21st…

…while TSG’s will take place three days later. On these, the proposed transaction will be subject to approval. Other regulatory bodies will have to give their approval of the merger before it actually happens.

The process could well be slowed due to the global outbreak of Covid-19 virus. UK Financial Conduct Authority, London Stock Exchange and Euronext Dublin are among the organizations that are to give clearance to this merger.

An Important Milestone

Says Flutter’s chief executive, Peter Jackson:

“This morning’s announcement from the CMA marks a further important milestone in the process towards completion of our proposed combination with The Stars Group.”

We continue to work with the remaining international regulatory authorities to obtain the last of the outstanding approvals. Separately, last week we published the necessary documentation ahead of the shareholder votes in April and we continue to make good progress in our post-completion planning.”

Leadership is Taking Shape

The two entities have also come to an agreement as to who will lead the new company…

…because they have decided on Divyesh Gadhia to serve as Flutter’s director. He is currently the executive chairman of The Stars Group and will become the deputy chair of the group after the merger.

TSG chief executive Rafi Ashkenazi will act as a consultant to Flutter and the board in a non-executive capacity rather than taking up an operational role, while Richard Flint, Alfred Hurley Jr, David Lazzarato and Mary Turner will also become directors.

Subject to completion, Jan Bolz and Emer Timmons will step down as non-executive directors of Flutter, while Ian Dyson will step down from the audit committee and will relinquish his roles as senior independent director and chair of the nomination committee. Andrew Higginson will instead take up these positions.

Source:

“Flutter and TSG secure CMA approval for mega-merger”, igamingbusiness.com, March 31, 2020.