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* Playtech shareholders reject buyout
* More than 45% vote against Aristocrat deal
* Playtech shares up 5%
* Says it will consider other proposals
(Recasts with voting outcome)
By Yadarisa Shabong and Juliette Portala
Feb 2 (Reuters) - Aristocrat Leisure's bid for
gambling software company Playtech fell through on
Wednesday after the British company's shareholders rejected the
2.1 billion pound ($2.84 billion) offer.
Australian gaming company Aristocrat had needed approval
from 75% of Playtech shareholders at Wednesday's meeting, but
less than 55% of votes were cast in favour of the deal.
Playtech's share price rose 5% by 1348 GMT after the
London-listed company said it was considering other approaches,
without elaborating.
Merger and acquisition business in the gaming and gambling
sector has been brisk since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,
with lockdowns boosting the popularity of online gaming.
Many of the takeover targets have been UK bookmakers, with
suitors looking to acquire British expertise in the field.
Ladbrokes-owner Entain has staved off two approaches
from U.S. rivals in the past year.
Playtech sparked interest from multiple players last year.
It was approached by Hong Kong-based investor Gopher, its No.2
shareholder, and JKO Play consortium, led by former Formula One
team boss Eddie Jordan.
JKO had planned to sell Playtech's Italian business to
Entain before Jordan withdrew in January, the Financial Times
reported.
Analysts at brokerage Peel Hunt turned bullish on Playtech's
stock after the company pointed to other M&A proposals,
upgrading it to "buy" from "add" and raising its price target to
700 pence, above Aristocrat's offer of 680 pence per share.
'BLOCKING STAKE'
"The emergence of a certain group of shareholders who built
a blocking stake while refusing to engage with either ourselves
or Playtech materially impacted the prospects for the success of
our offer," Aristocrat Chief Executive Trevor Croker said in a
statement before the voting results were announced.
Aristocrat, which will not be able to make another Playtech
bid for six months under UK takeover rules, said that most of
the dissenting shareholders took stakes in the company after its
offer was announced in October.
It had previously asked Britain's takeover regulator to rule
whether a group of Asian investors who bought large stakes were
acting as a concert party in a potential breach of takeover
rules, Sky News reported in December.
Among investors that took stakes in Playtech after the offer
announcement are Hong Kong-based Paul Suen, part owner of
English soccer club Birmingham City, and Stanley Choi,
regulatory filings show.
The two are among Playtech's top 10 shareholders. They could
not be reached for immediate comment.
($1 = 0.7388 pounds)
(Reporting by Juliette Portala in Gdansk, Yadarisa Shabong and
Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru
Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Kirsten Donovan and David Goodman)
