Chilean casino operators Enjoy and Sun Dreams could merge to create a company that would control 76% of the market. And amid rumors that the country’s top two operators had already signed an agreement, Sun Dreams has clarified that talks are in initial stages.
Local newspaper Diario Financiero shared a report from Sun Dreams addressing the local gambling regulator in which it detailed that “it has held preliminary conversations with certain creditors and potential shareholders of Enjoy SA, with the aim of exploring an eventual business merger, but no agreement has been reached to date”.
The rumors started after Enjoy informed the Financial Market Commission (CMF) that its creditors intended to merge with the competition in the middle of the judicial reorganization process that they will go through this year.
This agreement would have to go through several analysis stages, including the Superintendency of Gambling Casinos (SCJ) and the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE), while it would also take place during a new bidding process to renew licenses.
Enjoy’s board sent the information to the CMF on February 19, and the company revealed that neither the President, Javier Martínez, nor the Enjoy administration were aware of the merger talks. Additionally, the company declined to speak on the matter, but it assured that the intention is to focus on the proposed plans for 2021.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies’ Investigative Commission on Casinos, Rodrigo González, said that this merger would follow a “benefit” that the SCJ “irregularly” granted to Enjoy.
The commission asked the SCJ to “report whether this operation is legal and needs to be supervised,” while it also urged the FNE “to say if there are risks of market concentration, integration and domination that could end up in a monopoly.”
