Two years after an initial attempt at a buyout, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim is once again making an offer to take the Rhode Island-based casino company private.
According to a recent SEC filing, Soo Kim’s company Standard General has offered to acquire all outstanding shares in the company for $15. At the time the letter with the offer was delivered, that amount represented a 40% premium over what shares were currently trading at. Standard General owns 23% of the company.
It is also less than half of the $38 Standard General offered in January 2022. After peaking in March 2021 at just over $71 a share in March 2021, the trading price has steadily declined. The original offer valued the company at right around $2 billion. The new offer values the company at under a billion dollars.
The expectations set forth in the letter are that the Bally’s board will appoint a special committee of independent director to evaluate the offer. A committee deliberated the 2021 buyout offer for over a year before rejecting it in May 2022.
After news of the offer broke, trading on Bally’s stock did rise 11%.
Recent financial results from Bally’s did show revenues were up 6% year-over-year and the North American interactive division saw nearly 27% growth from 2022 with $44.4 million in revenue.
