Ainsworth Game Technology (AGT) has confirmed that Novomatic’s current takeover bid has failed after terminating the Transaction Implementation Deed.
The Austrian company has been pursuing AGT since April, and initially offered shareholders AU$1 per share for the remaining shares it did not hold.
However, the initial conditional takeover failed after AGT’s minority shareholders – led by Kjerulf Ainsworth, the son of AGT’s founder Len Ainsworth – accused Novomatic of undervaluing the ASX-listed supplier.
Since then, Novomatic has pushed on with an off-market takeover offer, upping its control of AGT to 66.59% as of 29 January.
However, the latest attempt to privatise AGT has hit a significant stumbling block.
Though full details are yet to be revealed, it is clear that shareholders once again were not happy with Novomatic’s offer, meaning it was unable to push its control in the company to above the 75% approval threshold needed to take AGT private.
“As the Scheme has not become Effective on or before the End Date and the Novomatic Takeover Offer has lapsed, Ainsworth advises that it has terminated the Transaction Implementation Deed in accordance with clause 13.1(a) of the Transaction Implementation Deed, effective immediately,” stated AGT, after the deadline for the offer ended on 6 February at 7pm.
In response to Novomatic’s pursuit, Kjerulf Ainsworth announced his own bid to increase his shareholding by 2.9% by offering AU$1.30 per share.
The deadline for the offer has passed, however, at the time of writing, there has been no update on the success of the bid.
For now, Novomatic is prevented from making another offer for control of AGT for four months following the closure date.