Kindred Group evaluates potential sale of Unibet
Kindred Group is considering a sale of its flagship brand, Unibet. This is what iGaming news medium iGamingBusiness states on rumours. Representatives of Kindred have contacted a number of businesses to evaluate their interest.
A possible sale of the Kindred flagship comes after pressure from shareholders. Rumours of a potential sale emerged earlier this year when Corvex became Kindred’s second-largest shareholder and the board almost immediately called for a sale.
Evert Carlsson, chairman of Kindred, indicated at the time that the company remained confident in its strategy which also included Unibet. iGB now reports that the board has nevertheless taken steps to evaluate the interest of potential buyers. This group includes a number of European iGaming concerns such as Entain, 888 and Tipico, as well as different private equity firms like Apollo Global and Blackstone.
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Little interest
As for now, according to sources of iGamingBusiness, there seems to be very little interest in taking over Unibet. According to insiders, this is due to the fact that the current price set by Kindred Group is considered too high and because stakeholders believe that Kindred Group has not responded well to the growing number of countries where online casinos and other online games of chance have been regulated. According to insiders, Kindred has lacked to efficiently get the most out of these new markets.
As a sale seems unlikely at this point, Corvex (which owns 10,12% of the Kindred shares), the operator may still take other steps to accelerate or even force a potential deal. Possible scenarios are to replace the board of directors or to once again urge the current board to consider a takeover.
Kindred shares currently trade at SEK77,66 (NZ$ 12,20), giving the iGaming concern a market capitalisation of SEK17,64bn (NZ$ 2,77bn). The business鈥檚 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2021 stood at NZ$ 182,36 which is the equivalent of about one fifteenth of its market cap. Kindred Group鈥檚 representatives declined to comment to iGamingBusiness about the rumours; the same goes for Entain and 888 that have been associated with the buy of Unibet.
About Unibet
Unibet is an online casino that was launched in 1997 and is the main brand of Kindred Group. Other websites that are part of Kindred are Maria Casino and 32Red. Unibet members can visit the site for a complete offer of betting products including an online casino and live dealer casino, as well as for bingo, poker, and sports betting. The group, Unibet Group plc, is headquartered in Malta and is listed on the Scandinavian OMX. With over 13,5 million users, Unibet is known as one of the largest gambling sites in the world.聽Although Unibet has not officially launched its website in New Zealand, users from NZ can visit the site. For now, Unibet is available with a dedicated Australian website.
