On 26 May 2011, Sportingbet announced a recommended proposal by the Sportingbet Group to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Centrebet and a share issue and convertible bond issue to raise gross proceeds of approximately £130 million (approximately £118.5 million net of expenses) through the issue of 154,761,904 new Ordinary Shares by way of a Firm Placing and Placing and Open Offer at a price of 42 pence per New Share and the issue of £65 million in nominal value of Convertible Bonds. The Firm Placing and Placing and Open Offer is conditional, amongst other things, on the approval of Shareholders.
The Open Offer closed at 11.00 a.m. on 13 June 2011. Under the Open Offer, valid acceptances have been received from Qualifying Shareholders in respect of 29,829,956 Open Offer Shares in aggregate, representing approximately 39.32 per cent. of the Open Offer Shares offered pursuant to the Open Offer. As a consequence, 46,037,227 Open Offer Shares were available for subscription under the Excess Application Facility. Valid applications under the Express Application Facility have been received in respect of 9,457,129 Excess Shares. The 78,894,721 Firm Placing Shares were not offered to Qualifying Shareholders under the Open Offer.
Shareholder approval to, inter alia, effect the Firm Placing and Placing and Open Offer and the Convertible Bond Issue was obtained at the General Meeting held at 11.00 a.m. yesterday at the offices of the Company at 4th Floor, 45 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AE.
Application will be made for the admission of 154,761,904 New Shares to the premium listing segment of the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's market for listed securities. It is expected that admission and commencement of dealings in the New Shares will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 16 June 2011.
The New Shares will be issued credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu in all respects with the Ordinary Shares in issue at the time the New Shares are issued pursuant to the Firm Placing and the Placing and Open Offer, including the right to receive and retain dividends and other distributions declared, made or paid be reference to a record date falling after Admission.
The total issued share capital of Sportingbet following Admission will be 660,543,128 Ordinary Shares of 0.1 pence each.
Terms defined in the Prospectus published on 27 May 2011 have the same meanings in this announcement.
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