Apollo Gets a Nod from the Court in its Bid for Great Canadian Casino

Wall Street Giant, Apollo Global Management finally receives a nod from the court for its acquisition of Great Canadian Gaming, which has been in the pipeline for some time.

About the Deal

The British Columbia's Supreme Court consented to the deal just after Great Canadian Casino shareholders pledged their support for the deal. Apollo's first moved to acquire Great Canadian in August, where it revealed that it was going to bid for between C$38 to C$41 per share. They eventually made a formal offer of C$39 per share in November.

At this stage, the most significant shareholders of Great Canadian vehemently resisted Apollo's offer as they complained that it was undervalued at the initial bid of C$3.3 billion. Since the Great Casino controls the biggest online casino venues around the Greater Toronto Area, this was quite true.

Apollo increased its bid by 16% by offering to bid at C$45 per share. This offer was made around February, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, making the Casino close its properties around Canada for several months.

On December 23, 79%  of the Great Canadian shareholders voted to accept the revised offer during a shareholder's meeting.

With the Supreme Court and Shareholders pledging their support for the deal, a few regulatory processes remain for the process to be completed.

The Deal Is Expected to Be Completed Around Q2

Since Apollo is on the way to acquiring Great Canadian before the end of Q2, the Toronto Stock exchange will soon delist. Apollo is optimistic that its business will grow further after the complete acquisition of the Casino.

The Great Canadian Casino has been in existence since 1982 and boasts of a total of 26 casinos in Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and New Brunswick. Due to the current restrictions in the Ontario region resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, only two properties are currently open in the area.

After a long period of involvement in the gambling industry Apollo has decided to invest in this business. In recent times, private equity funds have been making headlines in the gaming world with different magnitude if investments are coming in different directions.

Other recent strides by Apollo

In November, Apollo invested $500 million to SAZKA Group, a Czech lottery company, in a bid to strengthen its bid to take the UK National Lottery from Camelot, which had been operating for a long time.

Similarly, Gamenet, another Apollo-backed operator, revealed its plan to acquire an Italian B2C business for €950million. Apollo also participated in bidding for William Hillbut Caesars Entertainment, Inc. won that bid.

Although William Hill's operators still revealed that they had plans to sell the company's non-US operation later in the Year and Apollo is ready to bid for those as well.