Amongst a planned takeover of Australia’s Reef Casino Trust (RCT), majority shareholder Allwyn AG has shifted its structure to directly acquire 67.1 percent voting power in RCT.
According to a Thursday notice from RCT, Allwyn conducted an ‘upstream offshore transaction’ to combine Allwyn International AG and Allwyn AG, with Allwyn AG becoming the sole shareholder of Allwyn Austria Holding 1.
The move shifts the voting power directly to Allwyn AG, however RCT notes that the transaction ‘is independent of and unrelated to the takeover bid of RCT by Iris Cairns’.
RCT furthered that the transaction ‘is not a competing bid for RCT’.
RCT is currently negotiating the planned takeover by Iris, which had been scheduled to close on March 13th, but is likely to extend beyond the March 31st deadline, to give regulators more time to complete their assessments.
RCT agreed to a sweetened takeover offer from Iris earlier this year, with the bidder increasing its price to AU$3.87 ($2.52) per unit from AU$3.72 ($2.42).
The revised offer values the trust at about AU$192.7 million ($125.6 million) and raises the deal’s break fee to AU$1.9 million ($1.2 million).
Based in Sydney and part of Iris Capital, the Iris Hotel Group operates 13 hotels and two casinos — Casino Canberra, the country’s first legal casino, and Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs.
RCT’s two largest unitholders — France’s Accor and Casinos Austria International — which together control more than 71 percent of units, have signaled support and intend to accept the offer unless a higher rival proposal emerges.
The takeover still requires an 80 percent minimum acceptance level, Queensland casino and liquor approvals, and final sign-off on related share-purchase agreements. Iris lodged its bidder’s statement in August, with RCT issuing its target’s statement in late September.
RCT in late February reported a 6.4 percent uptick in FY25 net profit, to AU$5.41 million ($3.82 million), boosted by a 4.8 percent uptick in revenue – to AU$26.74 million ($18.88 million).
