After multiple attempts and numerous offers, Standard General is finally set to acquire Bally’s. On Thursday, the company announced that it has reached an agreement to purchase the outstanding shares of Bally’s for $18.25 per share, valuing the company at $4.6 billion.
The acquisition will merge Bally’s with Standard General’s The Queens Casino & Entertainment Inc., a regional casino company operating four casinos across three states.
Soo Kim, who serves as both the Chairman of Bally’s board and the Managing Partner of Standard General, played a key role in the deal. Prior to the acquisition offer, Standard General was Bally’s largest stakeholder. To facilitate the buyout, Standard General secured $500 million in financing.
“The Transaction provides Bally’s stockholders with a significant cash premium along with certainty of value for their investment or, if they elect to retain their shares, the opportunity to participate in the longer-term growth prospects of our expanded portfolio and significant development pipeline. The addition of the complementary QC&E assets builds upon the Company’s attractive growth profile. We look forward to working with the Board of Directors and the Company’s senior management team as they continue to execute on their business plan,” Kim said of the deal.
Stockholders actually rejected a 2022 offer from Standard General that would have paid $38 a share. Earlier this year, Standard General made a second offer of $15 per share, which led to the company forming a special committee to evaluate the offer.
While the group evaluated the proposal, some investors vocally opposed the offer, suggesting the company put its focus back on land-based casinos, ditch the online business and reject what they perceived as a lowball offer.
“After a detailed consideration by the Special Committee, with the assistance of our outside financial and legal advisors, it was determined that the Cash Consideration from Standard General delivers a meaningful and immediate value to stockholders. We look forward to working with the team at Standard General and QC&E as we move through the process to complete the merger,” said Chairman of the special committee Jaymin Patel.
Bally’s CEO Robeson Reeves said: “Our team is well positioned to continue to execute on our initiatives to drive growth across all our segments including in our International Interactive business, North America Interactive and our Casinos & Resorts segments, while proceeding with our development pipeline, including construction of our permanent casino resort in Chicago, for which we recently announced a comprehensive financing plan.
The addition of four complementary properties through this merger to our existing 15 domestic casino properties will add further geographic and market diversity to our portfolio. With QC&E’s development pipeline recently completed or already well underway, we see a path toward additional revenue and EBITDAR growth and value accretion as those projects are completed in 2025. We look forward to bringing our ultimate vision to bear and to working closely with the Standard General team to execute on that vision.”
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