Apollo buys Gamenet stake from Trilantic

Unquote understands that Apollo bought a 48% stake in the company for €182.5m via its $24.6bn Apollo Management IX fund.

The deal gives the company an EV of €760m, which equates to 4.8x its 2018 EBITDA, Unquote understands.

Trilantic sold its 8.6 million shares (equal to a 28.67% stake) in Gamenet to Apollo for €107.5m, while Intralot sold its 6 million shares equal to a stake of around 20% for €75m. Unquote understands that the GP reaped a 3.5x return.

Trilantic invested in Gamenet via its €574m Trilantic Capital Partners IV Europe fund in November 2010. Under the GP's ownership, the company grew both organically and via acquisitions, and increased its EBITDA from €14m at entry to €158m.

Previous funding
Trilantic initially purchased an 80% stake in Gamenet for €50m in November 2010, with an estimated enterprise value of €200m. In 2013, Gamenet listed a €200m note on the Italian ExtraMot Pro market with a fixed 7.25% rate, due to mature in August 2018. In 2014, the GP increased its shareholding to 99.2%.

Subsequently, the company acquired a 51% stake in Billions Italia and six months later fully purchased Gnetwork in March 2015. In June 2016, the business merged with the Italian-based activities of Greek listed gaming market operator Intralot Group. The deal saw Intralot acquire a 20% stake in the merged entity. In the same month, the group acquired a 70% stake in Jolly Videogiochi and a 51% holding in New Matic.

In July 2016, Banca IMI and Unicredit arranged a €30m revolving credit facility for the business. Gamenet went on to purchase a 60% stake in Agesoft, a software developer for amusement and entertainment devices, and fully acquired Gamecity, a Lucca-based slot halls manager.

In August 2016, the business refinanced its debt with €200m's worth of high-yield, non-convertible and non-subordinate, senior secured five-year bonds with a 6% coupon, due to mature in 2021. The note was listed on the Euro MTF market.

Gamenet listed on the Milan stock exchange in December 2017 in a €225m IPO at 750 cents per share. 

Following the institutional placement, Trilantic and Intralot held a shareholding equal to 45% and 20% of the company's share capital respectively. 

Trilantic sold an additional 15% in the company in May 2019, reducing its stake to around 30%.

Company
Founded in 2016 and based in Rome, Gamenet is a betting and gambling group, comprising video lottery, amusement-with-prize, gaming halls and online betting. It generated EBITDA of €158m in the year ending in June 2019 and expects to reach EBITDA of €160m for the current financial year.

People
Trilantic Europe – Vittorio Pignatti (chair); Giacinto d'Onofrio (partner).
Gamenet – Guglielmo Angelozzi (CEO).

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