The Playtech saga took a new twist recently after Tom Hall, the former Chief Executive Officer of the company, accused Aristocrat Leisure, the Australian gambling firm, and its advisers of orchestrating a campaign to protect its bid for the UK gaming group by creating speculations around a group of Asian investors.
Hall, who maintained a silence on the mentioned topic in the last few months, has dismissed all allegations. The clarification from Hall came after several media reports emerged about the potential influence of a group of Asian investors in the blockage of Aristocrat’s £2.7 billion acquisition bid.
In February 2022, Playtech confirmed that its shareholders did not approve the bid. “The total votes in favor of the resolutions were 56.13% at the Court Meeting and 54.68% at the General Meeting, which were below the minimum threshold (75% of those shares voted) needed to approve the resolutions. Accordingly, the acquisition of Playtech by Bidco has been terminated and the Scheme has lapsed,” the company noted at the time of the disapproval of Aristocrat's bid.
Hall and Weizer
Hall, who is a resident of Hong Kong and served as CEO of Playtech, called the allegations ‘rubbish’ and mentioned that the information received by the panel was incorrect. “As I explained to the Takeover Panel, I said I had never heard of, spoken to these people or their advisers,” Hall told the Financial Times in a recent discussion, referring to some of the names on the list of Asia-based investors.
Mor Weizer, who is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer at Playtech, led the recent launch of the company in Michigan and New Jersey.
Last year, shareholders of Playtech approved the acquisition of Finalto, the financial division of Playtech, by Hong Kong-based Gopher Investments in a deal worth $250 million.
