IGT sells off Italian companies

Lottomatica Holding, the IGT-owned Italian online gambling business, is selling off two of its businesses.

Lottomatica Videolot Reteand Lottomatica Scommesse, which operate the B2C gaming machine, sports betting and digital gaming businesses in Italy, are being sold in their entirety to Gamenet Group, a subsidiary of funds managed by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management.

Marco Sala, CEO at IGT, commented: “This enables IGT to monetise its leadership positions in the Italian B2C gaming machine, sports betting and digital spaces at an attractive multiple to comparable Italian transactions, providing us with enhanced financial flexibility.

“Aligning with our recent reorganisation, the favourable rebalancing of our business and geographic mix reframes and simplifies our priorities while improving the company’s future profit margin, cash flow generation and debt profile.”

The value of the deal is €1.1bn. The two companies being sold generated €207m in aggregated adjusted EBITDA in 2019, placing the deal in the upper band of valuation ranges achieved by the most recent Italian benchmarks.

The sale price is €950m, with €725m payable at closing, €100m payable on December 31, 2021, and the remaining €125m payable on September 30, 2022. It is expected that the deal will be concluded in the first half of 2021.