New shareholder Corvex urges Kindred board to consider sale

The business led by Keith Arlyn Meister issued a statement last week disclosing that it now owns more than 10% of Kindred’s shares and voting rights, in accordance with Swedish regulations.

Now the New York-based hedge fund has outlined what it sees as the best goals for Kindred’s future.

“We are excited to be large shareholders of Kindred. To date, we have had constructive conversations with both the chairman of the board and senior management of Kindred,” Corvex said. “We believe Kindred has built a strategic position in the rapidly growing global online gaming space.

Corvex outlined that the business should retain an advisor to look at possible sale opportunities.

“Given recent developments, we believe the Kindred board should immediately retain a leading, global financial advisor to evaluate strategic alternatives, including the potential value that could be achieved through a sale or business combination,” it said. 

“A fully informed board will be in the best position to weigh any strategic alternatives, compared with Kindred’s stand-alone business plan. While we have not pre-judged any path for Kindred, we believe the board should possess all relevant market information and let the data drive the decision-making process. We look forward to continuing to work with the Kindred team.”

In response, Evert Carlsson, chairman of Kindred, said the business remained confident in its current strategy.

“We are confident about the long-term opportunities for the company and value creation potential for all our shareholders. We welcome and look forward to continuing a constructive dialogue with all our shareholders going forward”, Carlsson said.

Last week, Kindred reported a 30.2% decline in revenue for the first quarter of 2022, mostly due to its withdrawal from the Netherlands. However, the business narrowly remained in profit.