Playtech confirms successful completion of €530m bond offering
Along with the sale of Playtech’s stake in Plus500, the bond offering helps solidify the Group’s balance sheet.
Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) has earlier today provided a trading update for the period since June 30, 2018, with the Group reiterating its adjusted EBITDA forecasts for 2018 in the range of €320 million to €360 million.
The Group said its financial position remains strong. During the period, Playtech continued to improve the efficiency of its balance sheet. This happened thanks to Playtech’s disposal of its entire holding in online trading firm Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS). On September 7th, Playtech said it had sold its entire holding of approximately 11.4 million ordinary shares in Plus500 at a price of 1,550 pence per ordinary share. Thus, Playtech realized gross proceeds of approximately £176 million (equivalent to approximately €196 million at the time the announcement was made).
Playtech explained back then it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes and debt reduction.
Adding to the positive effects on the Group’s balance sheet was the successful completion of a €530 million bond offering. The pricing of €530 million 3.75 % senior secured notes due 2023 was announced in early October.
Today, Playtech explained that the net proceeds of the offering, together with Playtech’s existing cash resources, have been used to repay all amounts outstanding under the bridge facility utilised for the purposes of the acquisition of Snaitech, to fund the redemption of the outstanding high-yield bonds issued by Snaitech and to pay for other transaction-related costs and expenses.
Playtech did not provide much information about its financial services division TradeTech Group. It merely reported that TradeTech’s underlying KPIs continued to display positive momentum during the second half of the year.
