Funding group Penta Investments is working alongside JP Morgan to explore the functionality sale of Fortuna Entertainment Neighborhood.
Penta is exploring its alternate choices for Fortuna, which currently operates in Poland, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, working sites and having a bet shops below the Fortuna, Casa Parulior and PSK brands.
Any sale of Fortuna may well perchance moreover purportedly be price up to €2bn (£1.7bn/$2.2bn), in accordance to Reuters which broke the news. Penta bought a Seventy 9.8% stake in Fortuna in 2017, having first equipped into the firm in 2005, before launching a takeover order in 2018.
Whereas not ruling out an exit, Penta is evaluating picks that may well perchance most superb support the vogue of the Fortuna franchise, the business knowledgeable iGB, while guaranteeing sustainable enhance and the introduction of long-term charge.
“As discussions are in their early stages, it’s premature to make investments on the actual outcomes,” Penta acknowledged. “On the opposite hand, the seemingly of a majority sale stays contained within the realm of consideration.”
This doesn’t essentially mean this may well perchance money out of gaming entirely, however.
“Penta, as a protracted-term investor, stays dedicated to the sector,” it acknowledged. “Our persevered hobby within the business is driven by a sturdy belief in its seemingly and enduring charge.
“We uncover the sector gorgeous and are taking a look to pause in it.”
Fortuna taken private by Penta in 2018
Following Penta’s beefy takeover in 2018 by its Fortbet Holdings subsidiary, Fortuna became delisted from the Warsaw and Prague stock exchanges.
The delisting would free Fortuna from public disclosures that may well perchance breeze away it at a bother to its opponents, the operator acknowledged on the time.
Victor Corcoran, aged chief govt of Paddy Power Online, leads the Fortuna as CEO, changing meantime chief David Vaněk. Vaněk took charge after Per Widerström – now CEO of 888 Holdings – left in February 2022 after seven years on the helm.
The following enormous CEE acquisition?
Fortuna’s presence across predominant markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) may well perchance moreover invent it a phenomenal acquisition goal because the business turns its attention in direction of the distance as a source of new earnings.
Entain has been the most packed with life acquirer in CEE, in section due to its Entain CEE joint mission with EMMA Capital. It bought a 75% stake in SuperSport, a number one having a bet and gaming brand in Croatia, in August 2022, then a one year later snapped up Poland’s STS Holdings. Whereas some shareholders possess puzzled these offers, Entain CEE is eyeing up extra offers for market-leading omnichannel brands within the distance.
Paddy Power operator Flutter Entertainment has moreover made moves within the distance. The firm bought an preliminary 51% stake in Serbian omnichannel sports having a bet and gaming operator MaxBet for €141m in September. The agreement moreover gives Flutter the probability to tag the leisure 49% of MaxBet in 2029.
The deal supplies Flutter with fetch admission to to the regulated Serbian market and aids its ongoing expansion plans, including contained within the wider Balkans space.
