David Baazov, who was previously the CEO for Amaya Gaming, is now looking to buy the company and has put forth an offer of 3.48 billion. This bid would value each share at $24 each, which is a very good value seeing as the current share value sits at about $18.34. He is making this offer before announcing the company he plans to lead, as he has been hired on as the head of another gambling operator. Right now, Baazov holds a stake of 17.2 percent of the company’s shares, which puts further value into his offer to try and buy Amaya. This also comes shortly after merging talks ended between Amaya and William Hill, so the timing could be important on this offer as well.
This offer isn’t a big surprise as Baazov first showed interest in buying out the company back in February of 2016. When he came forward with his desire to buy out Amaya last time he was at the head of the company. He was forced to resign from the company after he began facing charges regarding insider trading, which were being pressed by the AMF. When the charges began to surface he turned his attention else ware and dropped his bid offer, and so there never was an official response to the bid. Now, if Amaya were to choose to take the bid offer from Baazov, he would be made the official owner of Amaya Gaming and would control one of the larger online poker operators in the world. Amaya currently owns both Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker after they had bought them off of Rational Group almost two years prior.
William Hill already showed interest in becoming apart of the online poker giant, but negotiation talks ended after many of the shareholders argued against the value that would be added against the company that might devalue their share value. This does add a level of interest in Baazov’s offer that is valuing the company about $6 a share above their current share value. He must see something different than what the investors of William Hill saw. This also raises the chances that Amaya is going to take Baazov’s offer, whereas the offer would have been offer the table had the merge gone through.
Baazov offered some comments on the offer, stating that there is already $3.65 billion that has been locked in for the buyout of Amaya. This is actually more than the current offer that was being made, so it’s likely that if Amaya turns down the original buyout there would be an even larger follow-up bid from Baazov.
Amaya Gaming is currently considering the offer and will make a decision after talking with their shareholders and investors. They have announced that they will try to make a timely choice on the matter and will make their decision public after it has been discussed with Baazov. This bid has a very good chance of being approved.
