Germany’s Zeal Network makes bid for Lotto24

The German lottery provider has made an offer for the remaining shares in Lotto24.

Germany.- The Lottery provider Zeal Network has made a bid to take full ownership of the online lottery broker Lotto24. 

It already owns 93 per cent of the company that it spun off in 2012. It’s now made an offer of €381.79 per share for the remaining shares. 

Lotto24 has applied to delist its outstanding shares from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in order to allow the deal to go ahead. 

Zeal took control of the majority of Lotto24 in May 2019 after facing down opposition from shareholder Lottoland, which argued that the deal would cannibalise revenue for most investors.

Lottoland tried to delay Lotto24’s Extraordinary General Meeting in January in a bid to force Zeal to withdraw its offer. It then made its own €76m offer for Zeal’s Tipp24 business – an offer that Zeal turned down. In the end, more than 93 per cent of Lotto24’s shareholders voted to approve the deal.

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The final price that Zeal pays for the outstanding shares will be decided by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. The offer will not be subject to closing conditions since it’s a delisting offer. 

Lotto24 said it would not apply for its shares to be included in the regulated unofficial market, Freiverkehr.

At the start of the year, Zeal Network reported that its revenue for 2020 reached €652.8m, an increase of 39.9 per cent year-on-year.

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