Activist investors pile pressure on Ladbrokes owner Entain

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Entain faces growing investor unrest after two more US activist hedge funds voiced concern over the gambling group’s languishing share price and the ability of chief executive Jette Nygaard-Andersen to revive the FTSE 100 company’s performance.

New York-based funds Sachem Head Capital Management and Dendur Capital have built positions in the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral brands, according to five people familiar with the situation. They join Eminence Capital, a Wall Street activist that also owns a stake and went public with its grievances in June.

The activists are concerned about flagging sales in Entain’s core markets, including the UK, where regulators have cracked down on the online betting industry, as well as a series of management mishaps and costly deals, the people said.

The highest-profile of these was an equity raise this summer that helped fund the takeover of a Polish gaming company but hurt Entain’s share price.

After 23 straight quarters of double-digit growth in online revenues, Entain in September warned it expected a “low single-digit per cent” fall in pro forma online gaming revenues this year.

Its share price has tumbled this year by more than a third to a three-year low. By contrast, the share price of rival Flutter has climbed 11 per cent this year.

After the Financial Times reported activist pressure on Entain on Wednesday, the share price rose by 5.8 per cent to £8.80 in afternoon trading.

The activist investors have met regularly with Entain’s top executives in recent months. Nygaard-Andersen has become a lightning rod for criticism. A former non-executive director at Entain, with little experience in the gambling sector, she was drafted into the top job in January 2021, after her predecessor suddenly quit during a takeover bid.

One person familiar with the activists’ thinking said Entain had suffered from “a lot of self-inflicted wounds”. Shareholders had “lost faith” in Nygaard-Andersen and would seek her removal in the coming months, they added.

Entain earlier this month pledged to install four new non-executive directors to its board to fill gaps following departures this year. The activists want Eminence’s founder, Ricky Sandler, appointed to the board and to have a role in filling the outstanding vacancies, according to people familiar with their thinking.

In a statement to the Financial Times, Entain said it was “committed to constructively addressing any questions or concerns” of shareholders, adding that it recently laid out “a clear plan” to expand the business organically, improve margins and win market share in the booming US betting market.

A person close to Entain pointed to the re-election of Nygaard-Andersen with more than 99 per cent of shareholder support at the group’s annual general meeting in April.

Sachem Head, Dendur and Eminence all declined to comment.

Under Nygaard-Andersen, Entain has made 11 bolt-on acquisitions of gaming companies, with varying degrees of success. In June, Eminence published a letter criticising Entain’s decision to raise £600mn of equity to help bankroll the £750mn takeover of Polish betting operator STS.

The share price slump has pushed Entain’s market capitalisation to £5.2bn, well below the value of 2021 takeover offers the group received from Las Vegas-based casino group MGM International and Boston-based sports betting operator DraftKings. A person close to Entain said its response to the bids had been driven by shareholders’ feedback.

Eminence first took a stake in Entain in late 2020 and now owns between 4 and 5 per cent of the stock, according to a person close to the firm. Sachem Head and Dendur bought stakes following the flurry of takeover approaches in 2021, betting that the FTSE 100 group would attract more suitors. The pair’s shareholdings are below the UK disclosure threshold of 3 per cent.

Entain’s chair Barry Gibson has encouraged the investors to be patient with their demand for board seats to avoid derailing the group’s negotiations over an estimated £585mn settlement with UK authorities relating to historic bribery charges linked to a former Turkish subsidiary. The agreement could be reached as soon as next month.

Adding to the pressure on Entain, two London-based hedge funds, Martin Stapleton’s Perbak Capital Partners and Ilex Capital Partners, have taken short positions against the company worth more than £25mn each in recent months, according to public filings. Perbak and Ilex declined to comment.

One bright spot for Entain is its joint venture with MGM — BetMGM — which is the third most popular betting app in the online US market. While some shareholders still hope that MGM will return with a bid for Entain, MGM’s chief executive Bill Hornbuckle earlier this month downplayed the prospect of a second approach in the near future.