Deadline fast approaching for Playtech's Plus500 takeover
Supplier has until 31 December to close the deal but is waiting for approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority
Time is running out for Playtech to close its proposed £460m acquisition of CFD trading company Plus500 with the Financial Conduct Authority yet to approve the takeover.
The betting and gaming supplier issued a statement yesterday stating the deadline to consolidate the deal was 31 December 2015, and that it expected the FCA to make a decision sometime next month.
Playtech said it had informed Plus500 that the FCA’s regulatory assessment was a “confidential process” between the financial regulator and Playtech and would provide further updates in due course.
The takeover suffered a minor setback in September when Playtech confirmed it was taking longer than expected to secure the necessary regulatory approvals.
The acquisition, first announced back in June, has been approved by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, with the FCA causing the holdup.
The deal to acquire Plus500 has been far from easy, with the FCA having previously frozen 13,499 of the firm’s accounts following an earlier review of Plus500’s AML checks.
However, at the back end of summer Playtech issued an update and said that having re-verified all of its customers the FCA had released the accounts and it was “business as usual“.
The holdup with the FCA comes just weeks after the Central Bank of Ireland opposed its planned takeover of another CFD trading company, Ava Trade.