(AsiaGameHub) –   An Independent Board Committee has provided a unanimous recommendation for investors to accept a share purchase bid from the son of the Ainsworth Game Technology (AGT) founder.

Kjerulf Ainsworth, son of company founder Len Ainsworth, is offering shareholders AU$1.30 (£0.69) per share to purchase up to 5.5% of each investor’s stake. This move could potentially increase his own ownership in the firm to a maximum of 13.29%.

This follows a comparable offer made by Kjerulf Ainsworth last year at the same price point, which concluded on 30 January and resulted in him securing 318,529 shares. 

A message to shareholders from the Independent Board Committee stated: “While the Proportional Offer only involves a small fraction of your Ainsworth Shares, the Independent Board Committee believes the Offer Price represents an acceptable premium and has consequently recommended unanimously that Ainsworth Shareholders accept the Proportional Offer of $1.30 per Ainsworth Share (barring any superior proposal).”

The committee pointed out that the bid carries a premium of over 23.8% compared to AGT’s closing share price the day before the announcement, and a 23.6% premium over the one-month volume-weighted average price of AGT shares traded prior to the announcement date.

Ongoing dispute with Novomatic

This bid is the most recent development in the protracted battle for control over AGT.

Kjerulf Ainsworth launched his initial offer as a response to takeover attempts by Novomatic, which remains the primary shareholder in AGT, to acquire the slot machine manufacturer.

That specific attempt failed when Novomatic’s Transaction Implementation Deed was ended in February. Nevertheless, the Austrian organization has continued to grow its stake in AGT to 67.39% via an off-market takeover effort.

Novomatic had offered shareholders AU$1 (£0.53) per share, a figure that investors, spearheaded by Ainsworth, claimed at the time was a significant undervaluation of the company. 

This occurred despite the Independent Board Committee also supporting Novomatic’s bid and advising shareholders to accept it if no better offer was presented.

In addition to the shares from his first bid, Ainsworth has bought another 2.7 million shares on the market at prices between AU$1.04 (£0.55) and AU$1.09 (£0.59), according to the latest update.

AGT shareholders have until 27 April to reach a decision on the proposal, unless the cutoff date is extended as has happened previously.