Novalpina to acquire 64% stake in Olympic Entertainment

Novalpina made an offer of €1.90 per share, valuing the 64% stake or 184,535,220 shares in the online casino and betting operator at around €184m, and the total business at around €288m. 

The bid for the voluntary takeover was made via Novalpina's Odyssey Europe subsidiary and is expected to be announced on 4 April. The selling parties are the founders and major shareholders of Olympic, HansaAssets (45%), under the control of Armin Karu, and Hendaya Invest (19%), a company controlled by Jaan Korpusov.

Both parties agreed to the share sale and purchase agreement on 19 March with Odyssey Europe as the buyer, which is intending to de-list Olympic from the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange.

The transaction is the first deal from the investor's maiden fund, Novalpina Capital Partners I, which was announced in May 2017 with a €1bn target, according to Unquote Data. The fund will target buyout and growth investments, aiming to acquire a controlling stake in mid-market businesses with an enterprise value of €200-500m. It aims to make between seven and nine investments with equity tickets between €75-200m. As for targeted performance, it aims for a 20-30% gross IRR and a 2.5x money multiple. The GP held the first close of the fund in November 2017.

Company
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, OEG is a provider of gaming services in the Baltic states, and operates casinos in Slovakia, Malta and Italy.

People
Novalpina – Stefan Kowski (founding partner).
Olympic Entertainment Group – Madis Jääger (CEO); Armin Karu, Jaan Korpusov (founders).

Advisers
Acquirer – Weil Gotshal & Manges, Gerhard Schmidt, Stephan Grauke, Barbara Jagersberger, Tobias Geerling, Heiner Drueke (legal).

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• Weil Gotshal & Manges