Stars Group proposes public offering to fund Sky Bet deal

The Stars Group has announced details of a proposed public offering of common shares to help fund its acquisition of Sky Betting & Gaming (Sky Bet).

In April, Stars Group struck a deal to purchase Sky Bet from CVC Capital Partners for $4.7bn (€4.05bn).

At the time, Stars Group said that the transaction would comprise stock and cash, with the company to pay $3.6bn in cash and the remainder in approximately 37.9 million newly issued common shares.

Stars Group has now filed for a preliminary treasury offering of 15,000,000 common shares by the company, as well as a secondary offering of 6,000,000 common shares by certain shareholders.

In a statement, Stars Group said the offering will be priced “in the context of the market with the price and total size of the offering, to be determined at the time of entering into an underwriting agreement for the offering”.

Stars Group and the selling shareholders will also grant the underwriters for the offering an over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the common shares to be sold via the offering.

This option will be exercisable for 30 days after closing.

Stars Group also said the offering is not contingent on the closing of the Sky Bet acquisition or any debt financing and, if for any reason the deal does not go ahead, proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes.

The offering remains subject to customary conditions including the listing of the treasury common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, as well as the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Related article: Stars Group to acquire Sky Betting & Gaming for $4.7bn