Kindred Group applies for delisting
La Française des Jeux SA’s (“FDJ”) recommended public offer to the holders of Swedish Depository Receipts (the “SDRs”) in Kindred Group plc (“Kindred” or the “Company”) to tender all their SDRs in the Company at a price of SEK 130 in cash per SDR (the “Offer”) was declared unconditional on 3 October 2024. After the end of the extended acceptance period, FDJ controls in total approximately 98.60 percent of the outstanding SDRs in the Company. Against this background, the board of directors of Kindred has today applied for delisting of the SDRs in Kindred from Nasdaq Stockholm.
On 22 January 2024, FDJ announced a recommended public cash offer to the holders of SDRs in Kindred to tender all their SDRs in the Company at a price of SEK 130 in cash per SDR. On 3 October 2024, FDJ announced that the Offer had been accepted to such an extent, as at the end of the initial acceptance period on 2 October 2024, that FDJ would become the owner of 90.66 percent of all the outstanding SDRs in Kindred and declared the Offer unconditional. Since the time of announcement of the Offer, FDJ had also acquired an additional 2,400,000 SDRs, corresponding to approximately 1.11 percent of the outstanding SDRs in Kindred, from Veralda at a price not exceeding the price in the Offer. As a result, FDJ controlled in total 198,059,291 SDRs, corresponding to approximately 91.77 percent of the outstanding SDRs in the Company.[1]
In order to provide the remaining holders of SDRs in the Company with the opportunity to accept the Offer, FDJ extended the acceptance period of the Offer until and including 18 October 2024. During the extended acceptance period, the Offer has been accepted by SDR holders with a total of 14,734,917 SDRs, corresponding to approximately 6.83 percent of the outstanding SDRs in the Company. After the end of the extended acceptance period, FDJ thus controls in total 212,794,208 SDRs, corresponding to approximately 98.60 percent of the outstanding SDRs in the Company. FDJ has on 23 October 2024 initiated squeeze-out proceedings of the SDRs in Kindred not held by FDJ, and requested that the board of directors of Kindred applies for delisting of the SDRs in the Company from Nasdaq Stockholm.
In light of the above, the board of directors of Kindred has today, in accordance with FDJ’s request, applied for delisting of the SDRs in the Company from Nasdaq Stockholm. Kindred will announce the last day of trading as soon as Nasdaq Stockholm has confirmed the date to the Company.
For more information:
Patrick Kortman, Interim CFO
The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 17:55 (CET) on October 24, 2024.
About Kindred Group
Kindred Group is one of the world’s leading online gambling operators with business across Europe and Australia, offering over 30 million customers across 9 brands a great form of entertainment in a safe, fair and sustainable environment. The company, which employs approximately 2,500 people, is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Large Cap and is a member of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and founding member of IBIA (International Betting Integrity Association). Kindred Group is audited and certified by eCOGRA for compliance with the 2014 EU Recommendation on Consumer Protection and Responsible Gambling (2014/478/EU). As of 11 October 2024, La Francaise des Jeux is the majority shareholder in Kindred Group plc. Read more on www.kindredgroup.com.
Nasdaq Stockholm, KIND-SDB
[1] Based on 215,823,068 outstanding SDRs in Kindred, which excludes 14,303,068 treasury SDRs held by Kindred. Each SDR carries one vote.