Seven Aces shareholders should take the deal, says Industrial Alliance

Industrial Alliance Securities analyst Neil Linsdell thinks Seven Aces (Seven Aces Stock Quote, Chart, News TSXV:ACES) shareholders should take the recently amended takeover deal from an affiliate of private group Trive Capital.

In an update to clients on Thursday, Linsdell reiterated his “Tender” recommendation with the new target price of C$2.77 per share.

Seven Aces is a gaming company operating exclusively in the state of Georgia through a 70-per-cent stake in Coin Operated Amusement Machines (COAMs) company Lucky Bucks. Seven Aces announced on July 30 that it has entered into an amending agreement to the definitive arrangement agreement first announced in June.

The amended offer has the price per share going from C$2.15 in the initial takeover offer from June 11 to now a C$2.77 cash offer from an affiliate of Trive Capital Management who has agreed to acquire all the common shares of Seven Aces other than those controlled by CEO Manu Sekhri, subject to customary closing conditions.

“Following discussions with Trive Capital and our shareholders, Trive Capital offered to increase the consideration payable to Seven Aces shareholders by C$0.62 per Share, which we believe represents a compelling opportunity for our shareholders. The Special Committee and the Board of Directors have determined that the proposed transaction with Trive Capital, as amended, is in the best interest of Seven Aces and is fair to the Seven Aces shareholders (other than the Rollover Shareholder). Accordingly, the Special Committee and the Board of Directors (with Mr. Sekhri abstaining) unanimously support the Arrangement, as amended,” wrote Mark Lerohi, member of the independent special committee of Seven Aces’ board of directors.

Seven Aces says the amending agreement won’t impact the timeline of the special shareholders meeting scheduled for August 5.

The original offer represented a 25.4-per-cent premium to the ten-day volume-weighted average price ending June 11, which has now been upped considerably.

On the new deal, Linsdell said, “The offer represents a premium of approximately 57.4 per cent to the share price price as of the close of June 11, prior to the initial announcement.”

“We are increasing our target price to C$2.77 to match the new offer price. This is up from the initial offer of C$2.15, and is now above our target price of C$2.60 before the initial offer was presented,” Linsdell wrote.

Linsdell added that the increased offer price has secured voting support agreements from additional shareholders including Bedford Park Capital Corporation and JC Clark Ltd, which collectively hold 32.7 million shares. A little over 52.9 million shares or 71.1 per cent of the issued and outstanding shares have now been committed to support the deal, which is expected to close on August 12 following the shareholder vote on August 5.

Lucky Bucks has been acquiring gaming contracts at a notable clip of late, having secured its 30th acquisition in mid-June with five contracts from a J&G Amusement for US$2.5 million, followed by 16 more gaming contracts in July.