Sportech to delist from London’s AIM

The company’s share price fell after it announced plans to delist as a publicly traded company.

UK.- The betting technology group Sportech has announced plans to delist as a publicly traded company, triggering a drop in the value of its shares. The company launched on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2021, but it says that it has reevaluated the benefits and drawbacks of its listing.

Shareholders will vote on a plan to delist and re-register Sportech as a private limited company. The resolution will need the approval of at least 75 per cent of the votes cast. The company said that the listing entailed financial and non-financial burdens considering the scale of its business, which has been reduced after its sale of Global Tote. The company’s revenue last year was £26m.

Sportech’s share price closed yesterday a 55.00p, down by 43.2 per cent.

In a trading update for H1 2023, executive chairman Richard McGuire said: “Despite delivering improving operational results announced today, the substantial financial cost associated with maintaining a public listing, given our current scale, and the increasing volatility in the market valuation is adversely impacting net returns and future prospects. We find it necessary to take the difficult but pragmatic step of proposing delisting from the AIM market today.”

Revenue for the six months to June 30 was at £13.5m, level with H1 2022 on a constant currency basis. However, Sportech said its strategic approach had resulted in a 7.2 per cent increase in gross profit and an increase in adjusted EBITDA from £400,000 in H1 2022 to £900,000. Its loss before tax was £300,000, compared to a reported loss of £800,000 last year.