Bally’s Intralot has secured a new sterling term financing as it pursues acquisition plans and works through the takeover of evoke plc. A report by CDC Gaming said the company told the Euronext Athens exchange that it had arranged a senior secured sterling term facilities agreement worth £261.7 million with institutional lenders.
A later report put the facility at £286.78 million, or €306 million, and said it would be drawn in two term-loan tranches with a three-year tenor. It also said the debt was guaranteed and secured on a senior basis by members of the Bally’s Intralot group, in line with the group’s existing senior secured financing arrangements.
The company said the money will go toward general corporate and working capital needs, including acquisition plans and the refinancing of other indebtedness. That use matters because Bally’s Intralot is already carrying significant leverage, with total debt of €1.75 billion and adjusted net debt of €1.49 billion at 31 March, according to its latest financial statement.
The financing also arrives amid Bally’s Intralot’s recommended all-share acquisition of evoke, which Milbank said was announced on 5 June. The deal is intended to be implemented by a scheme of arrangement under Part VIII of the Gibraltar Companies Act, though Bally’s Intralot reserves the right to use a takeover offer instead.
Under the terms described by Milbank, evoke shareholders are to receive newly issued Bally’s Intralot shares, with a cash alternative available subject to a cap. Milbank said the financing support package for the deal also includes a bridge facility of up to €200 million for the cash alternative offer, a committed second-lien term facility of up to the euro equivalent of £889 million to refinance certain 2028 maturities, a consent solicitation for evoke’s 2030 and 2031 senior secured notes, and waivers tied to its revolving credit facility.
That package also includes an increase in evoke’s revolving credit facility to £220 million and a committed first-lien senior facility of up to £157 million from institutional investors. Earlier this month, Bally’s Intralot also extended its contracted services to the operator of the Irish National Lottery, Premier Lotteries Ireland, until November 2034.
