Online casino gambling concept with smartphone

Aspire Global

Stockholm: ASPIRE

Market CapSEK5,048m

Last Close -108.2

Aspire Global is a leading B2B provider of iGaming solutions, offering partners all relevant products to operate a successful iGaming brand. It has announced the proposed disposal of the B2C online gaming brands, including Karamba. Aspire operates in 30 regulated markets.

Investment summary

On 17 January 2022, NeoGames made a tender offer for Aspire Global (AG), which has been recommended by AG’s bid committee (two independent directors and the chairman).
NeoGames is offering SEK111 per share for 50% of AG’s shares and, for the remaining 50%, new equity of 0.32 NeoGames share (struck at U$38.01 per share) per one AG share. The structure of the deal is a little complicated but AG shareholders who in aggregate own c 67% of AG have elected to receive up to 100% of the new 7.6m NeoGames shares, enabling other AG shareholders to receive all cash if they elect to do so.

Y/E Dec	Revenue (€m)	EBITDA (€m)	PBT (€m)	EPS (fd) (c)	P/E (x)	P/CF (x)
2019A	131.4	21.8	17.9	32.41	32.3	107.1
2020A	161.9	27.6	18.4	32.48	32.2	16.4
2021E	218.0	37.6	31.5	57.50	18.2	11.9
2022E	248.4	44.6	37.3	70.84	14.8	11.2

Industry outlook

AG is exposed to favourable growth trends. First, the online gaming market is enjoying structural growth due to increasing global wealth, internet/mobile penetration and regulation. The geographic markets to which AG currently has some exposure are forecast to grow gross gaming revenue (GGR; ie customer wagers less their winnings) from US$37.6bn in 2019 to US$69.1bn by 2025 (source: H2 Gambling Capital). Second, online gaming markets are highly competitive with differing levels of regulation. These combine to make the operation of an online gaming brand challenging, particularly when working across many geographies.

Last updated on 27/04/2022