The board of Playtech Plc has informed investors that Hong Kong investment fund TTB Partners will no longer submit a takeover offer for the FTSE250 gambling technology group. 

Issuing a statement, TTB detailed that “due to challenging underlying market conditions it is not intending to make an offer for Playtech Plc”.

TTB’s withdrawal follows Playtech’s board granting the Hong Kong fund a deal extension to submit its formal do-or-die offer by 15 July.

Playtech shareholders anticipated an offer that would exceed the £2.7bn put forward by ASX suitor Aristocrat Leisure last February – a deal accepted by Playtech’s board but subsequently denied by a consortium of Asian investors.

A shareholder of Playtech TTB stated that it would continue to support Playtech’s board and executive management team in their “efforts to maximise shareholder value”.

Responding to TTB’s withdrawal, Playtech governance cited confidence in the firm’s ‘long term prospects’ standing-up to drastically changing market conditions.

Playtech also revealed that it would publish strong interim trading results as  “core earnings for expected to be more than 200 million euros ($200.38m) in the first half”.

Group CEO Mor Weizer, who had temporarily suspended his leadership to support TTB’s takeover offer stated: “Playtech carries strong momentum going into H2 2022 and continues to perform very well across its core B2B and B2C businesses.

“We remain confident in our long-term growth prospects and, in particular, our ability to benefit from the structured agreements that are already allowing Playtech to access newly opened gambling markets.”

Helping its rebound, Playtech has completed the sale of all non-gambling assets, having sold its Finalto FX unit to Gopher Investment for $250m, with proceeds used to repay its revolving credit facility.

Brian Mattingley, Chairman of Playtech said: “This process has shone a spotlight on the fundamental premium value of Playtech’s businesses and the Board will continue to consider options to maximise value for all shareholders.

“The group’s B2B business continues to go from strength to strength while Snai is the number one sports brand across retail and online betting in the Italian market. We are confident that we have the right strategy and the right team in place to build on this strong start to the year and deliver for all our stakeholders.”