Evolution Gaming co-founders to reduce ownership stake

Jens von Bahr and Fredrik Österberg, the co-founders of Evolution Gaming, have opted to reduce their stake in the company.

The pair have sold 1,798,520 shares in Evolution, correlating to approximately 5% of all outstanding shares in the business.

Shares were sold off at a price of SEK557 (€56.2/$66.1) each via an accelerated bookbuilding process to Swedish and international institutional investors.

In a joint statement, the pair said: “As co-founders of Evolution Gaming, we have both undergone a very emotional process before deciding to sell down just below 25% of our holdings.

“It is inevitable that investors will react negative to founders selling down and we both understand and appreciate that.

“There is never a good timing to sell down…so either you can simply never sell or you have to choose the least bad timing; we have chosen the latter.

“The company is performing well and every analyst covering our stock has a positive recommendation.

“This is likely, and hopefully, going to be a bad deal as we both hope and believe that the share price will continue to have a positive development long term.

“As aforementioned we do both still have the vast majority of our wealth in Evolution Gaming and in addition we are moving our shares to a new jointly owned vehicle that will control our shareholding in Evolution Gaming.”

The co-founders added: “We remain firm in our belief in, and commitment to, Evolution Gaming and intend to continue to be active shareholders for the long run.”

Related article: Customer activity drives revenue growth at Evolution