DGAP-News: Tipp24 SE plans relocation of registered office to UK (english)
Mar 20, 2013 4:13 PM
Tipp24 SE plans relocation of registered office to UK
DGAP-News: Tipp24 SE / Key word(s): Strategic Company Decision
Tipp24 SE plans relocation of registered office to UK
20.03.2013 / 15:13
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Consequence of focus on international business activities
(Hamburg, 20 March 2013) As part of its strategic realignment, Tipp24 SE
plans to relocate its registered office from Germany to the United Kingdom.
At this year's planned Annual General Meeting, the company's Executive
Board and Supervisory Board will propose a vote on the relocation to
shareholders of Tipp24 SE. Should the Annual General Meeting vote in
favour, the proposed new location for Tipp24 SE's registered office will be
London.
The planned relocation of the company's registered office is a logical
consequence of the strategic realignment of Tipp24 SE following the
spin-off of its German operations in July 2012 of by way of the IPO and
stock market listing of the now independent Lotto24 AG. Tipp24 SE has since
been concentrating on its international business, mainly in the UK and
North America, which it intends to develop from its future base in the UK.
Dr. Hans Cornehl, CEO of Tipp24 SE, states:
'The planned relocation is a logical step which makes good sense for Tipp24
SE. There is no other European nation where the conditions for our
strategic development are more favourable than the UK. The country is
rightly regarded as a recognized centre of the European online gaming
industry. It has a strong core of successful online companies, a
comparatively large pool of skilled employees with relevant sector
experience and a stable regulatory environment which is favourable for us.
We are therefore convinced that the UK provides a better base for us to
develop our business than Germany. The acquisition of a stake in the UK
Geonomics in December 2012 was already an important step in this
direction.'
Tipp24 SE has already launched its first strategic growth initiatives in
the UK. In December 2012, it acquired a 25.7 percent stake in the UK
company Geonomics Global Games Limited (formerly Roboreus Limited), which
operates the geo-based lottery GeoSweep (www.geosweep.com) via its
subsidiary GeoSweep Limited. In this lottery, players purchase squares
(so-called Geos) on an online map of the UK which act as lottery tickets in
daily location-based prize draws. GeoSweep operates under a UK Gambling
Commission licence and also offers the lottery in parts of Canada via a
cooperation agreement.
In January 2013, Tipp24 SE appointed its first Head of Business Development
as Managing Director of its subsidiary Tipp24 (UK) Limited in London. The
company was able to engage the services of Paul Witten, a manager with many
years of experience in the UK online gaming industry.
With the introduction of the Gambling Act in 2005, the UK was the first
major European country to establish a modern regulatory framework for
online gaming. With its long tradition of established betting and gaming
companies, the UK gambling sector has developed just as dynamically as its
online gaming market. The successful business activities of Tipp24 SE's
UK-based minority shareholdings are a further indicator of the location's
premium quality.
Tipp24 SE aims to utilise this positive environment for its further
strategic development. It will focus in particular on establishing a new
business division as a provider of Internet services for lottery companies.
In the medium term, Tipp24 SE also wants to bid for licences in selected
foreign markets to run its own lotteries. For the development of such a
portfolio of gaming licences, the company will consider both new licences
in more liberal regulatory environments and the acquisition of lottery
companies.
Tipp24 SE intends to maintain its legal form as an SE after the relocation
and retain its listing in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock
Exchange. The company's Executive Board and Supervisory Board are to
maintain their functions, whereby the Executive Board will work primarily
in the UK in the future. The current holding company functions in Germany
are to be gradually relocated to the UK over a longer period and in a
socially responsible manner.
About Tipp24 SE: Tipp24 SE was founded in September 1999 and holds equity
interests in a number of companies in Spain and the UK, which enable
participation in lottery-based games via the Internet, especially via the
websites www.ventura24.es, www.mylotto24.co.uk and www.tipp24.com. From its
foundation to the end of 2008, Tipp24 SE brokered tickets worth over 1.5
billion euros to the state lottery companies - in the latter years over 330
million euros annually. Following its successful IPO in 2005 (Prime
Standard), the company was admitted to the SDAX index in June 2009. In July
2012, German online brokerage activities were successfully spun off from
Tipp24 SE in the form of the company Lotto24 AG, which is listed separately
on the stock exchange.
Press contact:
Tipp24 SE
Andrea Fratini
Head of Media and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 (0)40 32 55 33 660
E-mail: presse@tipp24.de
Internet: www.tipp24-se.de/press/
End of Corporate News
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20.03.2013 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
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Language: English
Company: Tipp24 SE
Straßenbahnring 11
20251 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: Tel.: +49 (0)40 325533-142
Fax: +49 (0)40 325533-5600
E-mail: ir@tipp24.de
Internet: www.tipp24-se.de
ISIN: DE0007847147
WKN: 784714
Indices: SDAX
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard);
Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, München,
Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
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