Member Info for Marinella

As a diversion from the interminable Takeover Tedium, shall we hazard some guesses as to whether the H1 trading statement in September will include commitment to a dividend (the first for 3 years) and if so in what amount? We might be thought to deserve something after all this stress!!

Whether JKO or any other potential bidder will be blocked could depend upon its approach: Aristocrat sought a Scheme of Arrangement, which required the approval of at least 75% in value of each class of shareholder voting on the resolution; the advantage for the bidder would have been that all shareholders would have been bound by the Scheme had the vote gone to plan; but of course it didn’t…on the other hand as party making a contractual offer to acquire all PTEC’s shares would simply need over 50% of the voting share capital to win control. Full ownership might well take longer to achieve by that route but if the bulk of those shares not held by TTB were acquired by the bidder it would effectively be mission accomplished

Sunday Times reports JKO to be considering a bid again. Never a dull moment with this stock!

Apologies: the BlackRock disposal was yesterday (after the bombshell!) and the relevant RNS was posted of course today.

Without wanting to incite a stampede of reckless topping up, I would point out that yesterday only BlackRock posted an RNS:it sold about 1% of its holding. I for one am inclined to hang on for developments - we can’t be alone in seeing the great long term value @ £8+ !.

It will be interesting to see how share trading volumes respond to this in the near term as the big holders decide whether to keep the faith, given the positivity of the BOD.

Odey has (as of yesterday at least!) retained much the greater part of its holding and the same goes for all the big boys: we’re all in this together!! GLA.

Any shareholders living close to Holborn might consider attending the AGM on 30/6 and asking some pointed questions about the glacial progress of these negotiations!

Gopher and TTB Partners being affiliated, it would be unsurprising if the latter had to be satisfied that the former had Finalto absolutely in the bag before agreeing terms for the rest of PTEC. We’ll know soon enough….

If it were to tank next week, the temptation to average down would be irresistible!! GLA.

Morning Thunder. At 9.27 this morning Odey Asset Management posted an RNS that yesterday they purchased c.240,000 shares @ £5.23. They bought a similar amount on Friday, adding to their already significant holding. Perhaps they’ve made similar calculations to yourself (well done on those) but why are the shares being marked down when there is more buying than selling?

Hey, Thunder : don’t know about you, but in 40 years of trading I’ve never experienced anything like this. Any government would be delighted to enjoy such silence smothering its members’ private discussions and negotiations! Good luck to all who have kept their nerve.

No suggestion of any significant selling by institutional investors or potential bidders: a case of the market hating uncertainty. Over soon…..

The Restricted Period ends next Friday, just possibly heralding an update!

Lest any of you are of the (understandable) view that the current purgatory may have no end, we shall be put out of our misery by no later than 17 June: by paragraph 3 of Practice Statement 28 published by the Takeover Panel Executive (yes, I was a lawyer centuries ago) "...until such time as the Restricted Period has expired, there is no requirement to specify a deadline by which the Bidder must either announce a firm intention to make an offer in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or to announce that it does not intend to make such an offer. This is because the Bidder remains subject to the Restrictions until the end of the Restricted Period and, as a result, Playtech is able to terminate the discussions with the Bidder at any time, at which point the Restrictions would be re-imposed on the Bidder for the remainder of the Restricted Period and Playtech would announce the same. However if, at the expiry of the Restricted Period, discussions between the parties are still ongoing and the Bidder has not announced its firm intention to make an offer in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or that it does not intend to make such an offer, then the Board of Playtech, in accordance with the Code, will announce the date and time by which it must do so, which will be 5pm on the 28th day following the end of the Restricted Period, being 17 June 2022" - per TTB update 21/2/22. Now theoretically the parties could seek yet more time from the Panel, but in practice the institutional investors would surely step in to force their hands, by calling an EGM or otherwise.

I see 125,000 shares were purchased after yesterday’s close: we may discover, by rns later today, that someone was topping up at under 540p.

I take the point that there be some scepticism as to any bid but on the other hand there has been no significant trading of the stock , on the buy or sell side, since the big purchases by potential bidders ended in March. The Takeover Code demands secrecy during negotiations but this is tortuous (and torturous!).

I shan’t hold my breath, but it’s a poor show. My only certainty is that if I sell, there’ll be positive action the next day! Thanks for trying to help, Thunder.

Apropos your post on 8 April, Thunder, did you elicit any info. as to what is going on ?.

Thunder, can you post the email of the IR please? The sp is currently 20p down from a week ago and the sooner we express our dissatisfaction with the continuing drift the better.