Ireland opposes Playtech’s $105m takeover of Ava Trade

Gaming technology group Playtech said on Monday that the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) was opposing its planned takeover of Ava Trade, an online contracts-for-difference broker based in Dublin.

The company said it would be seeking clarification from the CBI about the $105m takeover, but its shares have fallen 18p to 810p on concerns this could also affect its £460m deal to buy trading business Plus500 - which is still awaiting approval from regulators - and hamper its move into the financial sector.

Playtech said it was working towards securing the outstanding UK approval for the Plus500 deal, having received approval from the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission. Analyst Nick Batram at Peel Hunt said:

“News that the Central Bank of Ireland has opposed the Group’s acquisition of Ava Trade is undoubtedly a setback. The questions are, whether this is just a temporary issue and isolated to Ava or whether there is a read across to Plus500? Given the scale of Playtech’s ambitions in financials, this uncertainty is not conducive to share price outperformance until there is some clarity. Therefore, we put our recommendation under review.”

Meanwhile Canaccord Genuity said:

“There is no direct read-through to the £460m acquisition of Plus500 deal, where there have been some delays to regulatory clearance - it is still awaiting approval by the FCA, although the Cyprus regulatory, CySec, has given clearance. But this announcement will clearly raise some concerns over the potential for the FCA to block the Plus500 deal.”

Guardian