Golden Nugget owner to go public in SPAC deal

Landry’s shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with a SPAC company.

US.- Fertitta Entertainment has announced that it will list Golden Nugget owner Landry’s on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Fast Acquisition Corporation.

The current owner, the restaurant billionaire Tilman Fertitta, will sell 40 per cent of Landry’s to Fast Acquisition Corp for $6.6bn.

Fertitta will continue to run the company, which has five casinos and 600 restaurants.

The newly-listed business will retain voting control and ownership of 31m shares in Golden Nugget Online Gaming. 

Fertitta plans to use the funds to make further acquisitions.

In a statement, Fertitta wrote: “We first began to explore going public in 2019, as we saw tremendous M&A deals hitting the market.

“However, the pandemic set these efforts back. Fast provided us with the perfect merger vehicle to allow us to take control of an already existing public company.

“Fast’s capital along with the equity investment from institutional shareholders will strengthen our balance sheet and allow us to pursue our acquisition strategy.”

Golden Nugget was recently awarded a sports betting and igaming licence from the Michigan Gaming Control Board along with 14 other operators.

The company beat its targets for the second quarter of 2020, reporting 84.3 per cent growth in revenue to $28.2m.