(Newswire.net — December 20, 2016) — Amaya Inc’s (TSX:AYA) founder David Baazov said on Tuesday he had ended negotiations to buy the Canadian online gambling company. Mr. Baazov said that “certain shareholders” were demanding a higher price than he could justify paying.
The company’s shares fell 3.3 percent to C$18.74, while Canada’s main stock index rose for the fourth straight day on Tuesday, led by the financial and energy groups as oil and bond yields climbed, while shares of BlackBerry Ltd advanced after the company posted better-than-expected earnings.
Baazov, Amaya’s former chief executive, offered to buy the company in mid-November in a deal valued at about $4.1 billion. Including debt and transaction costs, the deal was for $6.7 billion.
Baazov in late November said he would seek new funding for the portion of the offer he was financing along with a consortium of investors after KBC Aldini Capital denied its involvement in the deal.
KBC was one of four investors named by Baazov as his backers. The others were the Head & Shoulders Global Investment Fund, Hong Kong-based Goldenway Capital and Ferdyne Advisory, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Baazov and his partners were to have financed $3.65 billion of the deal, in addition to the debt that would have made up the remainder of the purchase..
Amaya, (also known as Amaya Gaming and Amaya Gaming Group) which owns gambling websites PokerStars and Full Tilt, said in February it had received a non-binding proposal from Baazov to take the company private for C$21 per share ($15.66). Baazov, who owns 17 percent of Amaya, increased his offer to C24 per share in November.
“The best course of action for me and Amaya would be for me to end my attempt to purchase the company,” said Mr. Baazov.
Mr. Baazov has been embattled by AMF charges that he was part of a tight-knit group of people who collectively made about $1.5-million on stock trades from tips he provided about several online casino takeover deals stretching back to 2010, including Amaya’s purchase of Cryptologic Ltd. and Chartwell Technology Inc., as well as Scientific Games Corp.’s takeover of WMS Industries Inc. The regulator says he passed on information about certain deals to his brother, Josh Baazov, and to another Montreal businessman, Craig Levett, who then passed it on to others.
In other financial results, Spot gold fell 1.1 percent as the U.S. dollar rose and investors sold on expectations of stronger global economic growth and higher U.S. interest rates, while deadly attacks in Turkey and Germany failed to spur safe-haven buying.