William Hill shareholders have approved an acquisition bid from Caesars Entertainment.
William Hill shareholders have voted to approve a takeover bid from Caesars Entertainment, with shareholders representing 86% of shares supporting the acquisition.
This comes after Caesars confirmed its plans to acquire the British bookmaker for £2.9bn ($3.72bn) at the end of September.
William Hill shareholders approve acquisition
A total of 1,251 (81.3%) of William Hill’s shareholders, which hold 86.6% of the business’ share capital, voted in favour of the acquisition.
During the shareholder meeting, 54.6% of the bookmaker’s shares were represented in voting which meant that 47.3% of William Hill’s shares voted in favour of the deal.
Shareholders also voted on the implementation of the takeover scheme with 87.1% of shareholders approving it. Both of the measures required approval from a majority of voting shareholders to come into effect.
With William Hill’s shareholders approving the acquisition, both parties must now secure the relevant regulatory approvals in order to close the deal. Caesars and William Hill aim to complete the acquisition in March 2021.
Tom Reeg, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, said: “We are pleased to have received William Hill shareholder support for our recommended cash offer. We continue to work towards satisfying the remaining regulatory conditions and look forward to completing the transaction next year and integrating William Hill US into our Caesars sports betting and iGaming franchise.”
The deal
Under the deal, Caesars will acquire the British bookmaker’s 1.08bn shares for £2.72 each.
Caesars aims to secure William Hill’s US sports betting operations and is expected to sell the rest of the business off.
The US casino operator said that the enlarged operation could generate up to $700m in net revenue during the 2021 financial year. Caesars also expects to secure the necessary regulatory approvals to complete the deal in the second quarter of 2021.
