Lottomatica plans €500m notes issue

The sale is intended to help finance its acquisition of SKS365 Malta Holdings.

Italy.- The Italian gambling company Lottomatica Group has announced that it plans to issue and sell notes worth €500m to put towards the funding of its €639m acquisition of SKS365 Malta Holdings. The issue consists of floating rate senior secured notes due 2030 and 7.125 per cent senior secured notes due 2028. The split will be communicated at completion of the offering. 

The notes will be issued on or around the completion date of the SKS365 deal, which  Lottomatica hopes to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2024 subject to antitrust and regulatory approval. Lottomatica has also received new commitments for revolving credit under an existing agreement. This gives it an aggregate principal amount of €50m, contingent on the acquisition.

Lottomatica is to acquire 100 per cent of the shares of the operator, which has around 1,000 retail sports betting points of sale and a strong online presence in Italy. SKS365 brands include PlanetWin365 and PlanetPay365. It has forecast EBITDA of €74m for the current financial year, with almost three-quarters of that from online. Lottomatica said that the acquisition will contribute to its long-term growth strategy, boosting its position in Italy 

It hopes to make cost synergies of €60m and revenue synergies of at least €5m by 2026. The deal remains subject to anti-trust and regulatory approvals but is expected to complete in the first half of 2024. Playtech had previously been in negotiations to buy the operator.

Lottomatica reported revenue of €1.39bn for 2022, an increase of 72 per cent against comparative results the previous year. Partly responsible for the rise was the group’s 2021 merger with Gamenet Group, making it the biggest retail gambling operator in Italy.