Following our report from last night that Teddy Sagi’s holding company, Brickington Trading Limited, had informed Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) that Mr. Sagi intended to sell 32 million Playtech shares in an effort to diversify his investments, the company announced early this morning that the share sale was increased in size and completed – but at a fairly steep discount to Playtech’s current share price.
Mr. Sagi’s Brickington increased the number of Playtech shares sold in the deal to 36.5 million.
Playtech shares closed yesterday at £9.93, after setting an all-time high of £10.20 earlier in the day. To get that many shares sold overnight, however, the underwriters – Goodbody Stockbrokers, Shore Capital, and UBS – needed to offer institutional investors a deep discount.
The shares were cleared at £9.24 per share, or a 7% discount to yesterday’s closing price.
Doing the math, the share sale brought in £337.3 million (USD $429 million) to Brickington and Mr. Sagi.
Following the sale, Teddy Sagi continues to own 20.1 million Playtech shares, or 6.3% of the company.
This is the first time Mr. Sagi has gone below a 10% stake in Playtech, and it might not be long before he is no longer the company’s largest shareholder. Mr. Sagi currently sits slightly ahead of outside shareholders Morgan Stanley and Paris based asset manager Boussard & Gavaudan which acquired 13 million Playtech shares from Brickington back in March.
As part of its agreement with the underwriters, Brickington has agreed to a 180 day lockup of the rest of its Playtech shares – meaning that Mr. Sagi will not dispose of any further Playtech shares for a period of at least 180 days, subject to the consent of UBS as well as customary exceptions.
By virtue of selling his Playtech stake to below 15%, Mr. Sagi and Brickington will now trigger termination of his special major shareholder “Relationship Agreement” with Playtech, based on conditions of Brickington’s sale of Playtech shares last November.
That agreement allowed Sagi to appoint directors to Playtech, as well as provide other inter-company services to the company.
