The UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority has announced an investigation into the completed acquisition by Novo Invest, acting through Novomatic UK, of Talarius, the major British adult gaming centres business.
An initial enforcement order has been served under Section 72 (2) of the Enterprise Act, 2002. Written representations about any competition or public interest issues have been invited by the CMA. The time-scale for the exercise has not been declared.
The CMA is the UK government’s organisation that watches over mergers and acquisitions to ensure that they are within the public interest and has considerable powers to impose conditions or even ban mergers if it feels a monopoly situation may emerge.
In the recent merger between Ladbrokes and Coral, the two big bookmakers, the CMA has compelled the sale of 400 of the betting shops as a condition of approval.
Industry insiders are suggesting in the case of Novomatic and Talarius that as many as 40 of the combined holding of adult gaming centres may have to be divested by the two companies in order for the sale to go through unopposed by the CMA.
The Talarius acquisition was announced on June 27 of this year. Novomatic bought Talarius from the Australian gambling group Tatts which had owned Talarius since 2008. The AGC business contains 153 locations and the purchase price was €141m. The chain of locations contains 7,500 machines and employs 1,000 staff. It is headquartered in Milton Keynes, just north of London. The brands operated by Talarius include Quicksilver, Silvers and Winners. The purchase brings Novomatic‘s adult gaming centres holdings up to 244.
