Flutter & The Stars Group Casino Merger Moves Forward

After just a few months, Australian competition authorities have now given the green light for the planned merger between corporate gaming and casino giants The Stars Group and Flutter Entertainment. This is good news for the 2 brands, as their proposed merger faces many hurdles and getting over this one bodes well.

The proposed merger between the two gaming giants is the makings of an expected annual revenue totalling $4.9 billion and as such, as a result of the sheer magnitude of the merger, the deal remains subject to approval by regulators and authorities in a number of countries around the world. And now that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has given the casino merger the unofficial thumbs-up, more markets will in all likelihood follow suit.

More Approvals Are Required

But at the same time, the race isn’t won just yet. If the casino merger is going to be successfully finalised, the two parties to the planned deal will have to now secure an approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, not to mention from various other international regulators and authorities.

Once all of the necessary approvals are in place, the merger will have to be put to the internal shareholder-vote. In order for the merger to be finalised, at least 65% of The Stars Group’s shareholders would have to have cast their votes in support of combining forces. However, there is little doubt the vote will achieve the required numbers, as the deal seems a wholly beneficial one on all sides.

A 2020 Merger Is The Goal

Other regulatory approvals needed include approvals by merger control authorities in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority confirmed earlier on this month that it was open towards investigating the possibility of an approval of the casino merger on its part and furthermore announced that all interested parties were required to submit their own comments on the plans proposed by the two gaming giants, and by no later than February 18^th.

Approvals still to be secured in order to the merger to be finalised in its current state of proposal, include green lights to be issued by the London Stock Exchange, Dublin’s Euronext and the FCA. The aim is to gain the necessary permissions in a timeframe that would allow the merger to be 100% finalised by latest the 3^rd quarter of 2020.

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