INTRALOT Group and Trilantic Capital Partners Europe (TCP), the controlling shareholder of Gamenet S.p.A.  ("Gamenet"), announce today the signing of the agreement to merge the Italian activities of the INTRALOT Group into those of Gamenet, a leading VLT and AWP concessionaire and retailer in Italy and a betting and online operator. This step follows the announcement of the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 21, 2016.

As indicated in prior communications, following completion of the transaction, the INTRALOT Group will control 20% of the combined operations and TCP apprx. 80%. This transaction creates one of the leading players in the Italian gaming market, with a network of approximately 750 betting shops that will continue to use INTRALOT’s brand name, approx. 8,200 VLTs, over 50,000 AWPs licenses and more than 60 directly owned and managed gaming halls.

Antonios Kerastaris, INTRALOT Group CEO commented: “The completion of the transaction with Gamenet, based on the terms agreed in March 2016, marks the inauguration of a broader M&A strategy for INTRALOT that capitalizes on complementarity and synergies with strong local partners. Our combined offering with Gamenet creates a best-of-breed portfolio of products that will successfully address all the challenges in the Italian market. Our experience across all content verticals along with our innovative solutions towards a novel customer experience will help us address growing customer needs and exploit new trends in gaming and retail. We could not have anticipated a more suitable partner than Gamenet in this exciting journey.”

Guglielmo Angelozzi, Gamenet Group CEO commented: “This is an important step in the process of growth and diversification that we started 18 months ago.

This transaction will allow us to fully exploit future business opportunities, thanks to our supporting investors, to our robust financial structure (with one of the lowest debt ratios in the sector), a highly skilled and motivated team (with women and young graduates under the age of 40 making up around 50% of the staff) and thanks to the high-quality technologies and expertise that the INTRALOT Group can provide us.

The merger of two companies with a high level of technological innovation in their DNA is also an important sign for this market and leads to the creation of a gaming company able to compete as leader and guarantee superior technology and security standards for the Italian state, our partners in the value chain and our customers".

The completion of the transaction, which is expected by the end of June, is subject to the approval of the competent Antitrust Authority.