Ann: FY2023 Results Media Release, page-6

(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires November 14, 2023 22:13 ET (03:13 GMT) Copyright(c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. DJ Aristocrat Still Monitoring for M&A Opportunities, CEO Says -- Interview By Stuart Condie SYDNEY--Aristocrat Leisure retains an appetite for mergers and acquisitions as the Australian gaming company prepares to complete its $1.2 billion acquisition of Nasdaq-listed NeoGames. Aristocrat expects to complete the NeoGames transaction in fiscal 2024, increasing its access to the fast-growing U.S. online gaming market. The company, which also sells slot machines and develops mobile games, nonetheless has the funds and bandwidth to keep tabs on other inorganic opportunities, Chief Executive Trevor Croker said Wednesday. "We have the capacity to do it but we're very disciplined and we look to make sure that we take logical and pragmatic steps to bring businesses in to accelerate their growth and then to create the opportunity for the next piece of M&A," Croker said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. Australian gaming-machine developer Ainsworth Game Technology this week said it had appointed advisors from Macquarie Group to lead a strategic review focused on maximizing shareholder value. Asked whether Aristocrat could be interested in any Ainsworth assets, Croker said Aristocrat was constantly assessing opportunities. "M&A can take a long time. We look at what we want, as opposed to what's on the market," Croker said. Croker noted that Aristocrat had built its real-money online gaming business, Anaxi, through what he called a "build and buy" strategy involving both development and acquisitions. Anaxi now has signed agreements with partners in over 80% of the U.S. iGaming market, Aristocrat said Wednesday. "We continue to be dynamic around what we want that fills our strategy, but I won't point to any specific solution or targets," Croker said. Write to Stuart Condie at [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires November 14, 2023 22:13 ET (03:13 GMT) Copyright(c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Wednesday 15 November 2023 14:13:00.000 AEST