Austrian gaming supplier and operator Novomatic AG announced that it has completed the acquisition of a majority share of Australian slot supplier Ainsworth Game Technology. The European gaming giant concluded all regulatory approvals of the transaction, in which Novomatic paid just over €300 million for the 52 percent stake of the Australian company’s founder, gaming legend Len Ainsworth.
“All the necessary international regulatory confirmations are in place, allowing Novomatic to move ahead with the purchase of approximately 52 percent of the Australian gaming company Ainsworth Game Technology Limited (AGT),” Novomatic announced in a press release. “The process involved regulatory approval from multiple gaming jurisdictions, including in Australia, South America and the United States. One of the authorities’ main tasks was to carry out comprehensive compliance checks, not just for Novomatic itself, but also for all owners, supervisory board and executive board members.”
The company reports that the transaction officially close on January 5. With that, Len Ainsworth resigned as an executive director of AGT, but will continue as a consultant to the company for 12 months.
“Novomatic is now one of the few European Union-based companies to have passed strict compliance checks from these international authorities,” the company wrote in the release. “For this reason, a variety of independent licensing boards undertook lengthy probity investigations and have confirmed the deal can go ahead.
“Novomatic is particularly proud of its successful approval with the Nevada Gaming Control Board in Nevada, U.S., which required rigorous compliance scrutiny. Novomatic is now the first Austrian company to receive regulatory approval in the gaming metropolis of Las Vegas.”
Harald Neumann, Novomatic chairman, stated, “The compliance investigations carried out as part of this registration were extremely thorough. They included all corporate divisions of Novomatic AG.”
The purchase of shares in AGT is the largest investment an Austrian company has ever made in Australia. “Our shares in Ainsworth are strategically very important for Novomatic,” said Neumann. “After all, the joint plan is to increase market share in the U.S. to about 10 percent over the next five years. In the long term, Novomatic may become the world market leader in the area of gaming.”
In other Novomatic news, a company spokesman told Reuters last week that Novomatic exited the German gaming market at the end of December, calling for more regulatory clarity. Last fall, the company canceled a plan for a €5 billion initial public offering on the Frankford stock exchange, citing uncertainty over new regulations regarding gambling halls.
Novomatic generates more than half of its revenue from its casino operations.
