Teddy Sagi sells off remaining Playtech stake

Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi has sold off his remaining shares in Playtech, the iGaming solutions giant he founded in 1999.

Sagi has sold his final 15,193,489 shares through his Brickington Trading holding company, equivalent to a stake of around 4.8% in the business.

The sale, which follows the divestment of a stake equivalent to 1.6% of Playtech’s issued share capital earlier in November, was arranged by Credit Suisse Securities.

Sagi’s family office Globe Invest said Brickington had been working on the divestment for a number of weeks. This, it said, was in-line with a long-term strategy for Sagi and his family trusts to diversify their sources of wealth.

This has seen Sagi invest in a range of different sectors, acquiring Camden Market Holdings, the owner of London’s Camden Market, Stables Market and Camden Lock Developments in 2014, and mobile advertising agency Mobfox earlier this month. As a result the entrepreneur has been steadily reducing his stake in Playtech over the past two years.

“My focus for the last few years has been in real estate, co-working, service apartments, e-commerce and advanced technology, cyber-security and innovation companies,” Sagi explained.

“I consider myself part of Playtech’s successful history, and I am proud of what we have accomplished together since its inception. I wish it every success in the future.”

Since its establishment in 1999, Playtech has grown into one of the industry’s leading service providers, with full-year revenue for 2017 climbing 18% to €807.1m (£713.7m/$915.7m).

However, 2018 has proved a more difficult year for the company, which has been forced to issue two profit warnings as a result of declines in its business in Asian markets.

Shares in the supplier were trading down 0.24% at 454.30p per share on Friday (November 23) afternoon, and are currently down 46.11% over the past 12 months.