Bally’s chairman makes second attempt at taking company private

Standard General has made an offer to acquire all remaining shares for $15 each

Two years after an initial attempt, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim is once again making an offer to take the Rhode Island-based casino company private.

The operator has a widespread land-based and digital footprint in North America, including an online casino in Ontario the company launched in July 2022.

According to an SEC filing, Soo Kim’s company Standard General has offered to acquire all outstanding shares in the company for $15 ($C20). This represents a 40% premium over what the shares were trading at when the letter was sent.

Standard General, which owns 23% of Bally’s, offered $38 in January 2022 and this decline reflects the steadily falling price of Bally’s shares following its peak of $71 in March 2021.

Standard General’s new offer values the company at just under a billion dollars which is half of the $2 billion it valued Bally’s at when it made its initial offer two years ago.

The expectations set forth in the letter are that the Bally’s board will appoint a special committee of independent directors to evaluate the offer. Two years ago a committee deliberated the 2021 buyout for over a year before rejecting it in May 2022.

Following news of the offer trading on Bally’s stock did rise 11%.

Recent financial results from Bally’s did show revenues were up 6% year-over-year and the North American interactive division saw nearly 27% growth from 2022 with $44.4 million in revenue.

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