Tabcorp Receives New and Improved Offer from Entain

Tabcorp, the Australian lottery and betting operator, gets closer to selling its Media and Wagering division after receiving a new and improved offer from Entain. The company from the United Kingdom has confirmed that it has made an improved bid worth 3.5 billion Australian dollars.

The previous offer made by Entain was worth 3 billion dollars, and it competed with similar unsolicited offers Tabcorp received from other suitors. One of those offers, which was later rejected, came from Fox Corporation, the famous U.S. media business owned by the Murdoch family.

At the end of March, Tabcorp decided to reject all offers and wait for improved ones. The Australian company is valued at around 10 billion dollars, while its Wagering and Media division controls around 44% of the local sports betting and racing market.

After having rejected the offers of 3 billion dollars, Steven Gregg, the chairman of Tabcorp’s board of directors, said that “certainty” is also a factor when considering the acquisition offers. At the time, market sources claimed that an offer around 3.5 billion dollars would be enough to persuade the Tabcorp board.

That apparently convincing offer is now on the table, Entain has committed to paying 3.5 billion Australian dollars and also added that their bid offers “certainty of deliverability” as well.

A statement from the Entain board added that for them this acquisition represents “an opportunity to acquire an attractive business, which when combined with the existing Australian business, would create a leading, integrated multi-channel and multi-brand wagering company.” Entain currently operates the Neds brand in Australia, which it acquired in 2018, along with its traditional Ladbrokes brand.

However, some analysts believe that the improved offer is still too low and that it might be rejected. For instance, analysts at J.P. Morgan, the famous global bank and investment company, stated that the deal will have to go through significant regulatory difficulties, while the actual value of the business would be 3.68 billion dollars, 5 percent higher than Entain’s offer.

Another way forward would be to demerge the Wagering and Media division from Tabcorp’s main business and then sell it. In the first half of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the Australian company recorded revenues of 2.87 billion dollars,1.5% less than the 2.91 billion dollars earned in the same period in 2019-2020.

Source: “Ladbrokes owner increases bid to $3.5b for Tabcorp’s wagering business“. The Sydney Morning Herald. April 27, 2021.