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Bids believed to have come in from Oaktree Capital Management and Iris Capital for New Zealand operator
New Zealand operator SkyCity Entertainment has received two takeover bids: one from global investment giant Oaktree Capital Management and one believed to be from Iris Capital, the owner of Casino Canberra and Alice Spring’s Lasseters Hotel Casino in Australia
SkyCity Entertainment confirmed it had received two bits but that it had rejected them both.
It said it received a ‘confidential, unsolicited, conditional, non-binding indicative proposal from a special situations fund managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P, to acquire all of the issued shares in SkyCity at an indicative price of NZ$0.70 cash per SkyCity share, and another party at an implied indicative price of NZ$0.75 cash per SkyCity share.’
It didn’t, though, name Iris, which is owned by Sam Arnaout, although several media outlets in Australia did.
SkyCity added: “Both indicative proposals were subject to numerous conditions, including a period of at least eight weeks due diligence and arranging debt financing. The proposals were also conditional on agreement on transaction structure, negotiation of binding documentation, unanimous SkyCity board support, SkyCity shareholder approval, regulatory approvals, and acquirer internal approvals, amongst other matters.”
“SkyCity was also requested by one or both parties not to enter into any binding agreement to acquire or dispose of any assets. The SkyCity Board carefully considered these indicative proposals, with input from
management and advisers. The Board unanimously determined that these proposals did not adequately reflect the underlying value of the company, and that the conditions were problematic. Accordingly, the parties were advised that SkyCity was not prepared to proceed on the terms proposed. SkyCity did indicate to each party that it was prepared to consider engaging further, including providing due diligence information, if they provided a revised proposal which addressed these issues. Neither party submitted a revised, improved proposal.”
