Private equity fund Trilantic Capital Partners IV Europe (Trilantic Europe), via its subsidiary TCP Lux Eurinvest (Eurinvest) is to sell 8.6 million shares (equal to 28.67 per cent of the share capital) of Gamenet Group, a operator in the Italian sports betting and gaming sector, to a company formed on behalf of funds managed by Apollo Management IX (Apollo).
The agreed price is equal to EUR12.5 per share. Completion is subject to, inter alia, Antitrust and Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli clearances and is expected to occur by year end 2019. Upon completion, the buyer will be required to make a mandatory takeover offer for all the remaining shares in the Company.
Trilantic Europe first acquired a controlling stake in Gamenet in November 2010 via a primary deal sourced on a proprietary basis, in line with the firm’s investment strategy.
From the time of the acquisition, Trilantic Europe focused on the professionalisation of the Company, putting in place a first-class governance and management team and a state of the art organisation in terms of controlling, reporting and IT systems. The business grew 10+ fold from EUR14 million at entry to EUR158 million (Jun-19 LTM pro forma1) EBITDA and increased its number of employees from 80 to almost 800. Guided by CEO Guglielmo Angelozzi since 2014 and with the support of Trilantic Europe, Gamenet (i) gained access to the capital markets with the issuance of 4 high yield bonds in the 2013- 2018 period and its listing on the Milan stock exchange in 2017 and (ii) executed a successful buy-and-build strategy, including the two transformational acquisitions of Intralot Italia and Goldbet.
Giacinto d’Onofrio, Partner, Trilantic Europe, says: “We are proud to have contributed, alongside the management team, to the success and growth of Gamenet. We acquired in 2010 a small and promising company to execute a growth project. Nine years later, Gamenet is today a leading operator in Italy, with EBITDA more than 10 times higher vis-à-vis the acquisition date, and it is a well-respected name in the bond and equity markets”.
Vittorio Pignatti, Chairman, Trilantic Europe, says: “Gamenet is a tangible example of what Trilantic Europe can execute for a company: professionalisation of all the key company’s functions; creation of the right managerial organisation and hiring of the right managers; execution of a buy-and-build strategy, in line with the company’s strategic plan; and management of the company’s debt, equity and M&A transactions.”
Guglielmo Angelozzi, CEO, Gamenet, says: “It has been a great journey. Our team, with the constant and precious support of our main shareholder, Trilantic Europe, has led the company to become a market leader in the gaming sector with a solid business model and a well-diversified product portfolio. This has allowed Gamenet to gain increasing respect and trust from our clients, our commercial partners, our institutional stakeholders and our bond and equity investors and to attract what, at the completion of this transaction, will become our new controlling shareholder, funds managed by affiliates of the leading alternative asset manager Apollo. As it has always done from the beginning, Gamenet will continue to take on new challenges and opportunities.”
