Renowned Latin American casino operator Enjoy SA could reportedly be about to merge with larger compatriot Sun Dreams SA so as to create an entity that would be responsible for a dominant 76% of the casino market in Chile.

According to a Wednesday report from the Bloomberg news service, the President for Santiago-headquartered Enjoy SA, Javier Martinez, revealed that he was made aware of the planned amalgamation late last week after receiving a call from a representative of his firm’s main creditors, Henry Comber. The executive purportedly also detailed that an unspecified investment bank has already been hired to work out the particulars of an envisioned deal that would see these investors, which include the likes Inversiones Kinacu Limitada, Banchile Administradora General de Fondos SA and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, become shareholders in the newly-enlarged casino-operating enterprise.

Prominent players:

Enjoy SA reportedly controls 37.6% of the lucrative Chilean casino market courtesy of venues in the cities of Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Vina Del Mar, Rinconada, Santa Cruz and Pucon while the 38.8% market share held by Sun Dreams SA comes via its six properties in South America’s second richest nation including the tourist-friendly Casino Dreams Valdivia and Casino Dreams Puerto Varas facilities. This latter firm was established in 2015 via a partnership between South African hospitality giant Sun International Limited and South American counterpart Dreams SA and reportedly cancelled a previous attempt to purchase its smaller rival exactly a year ago after the two were unable to agree a final purchase price.

Recent revelation:

For its part and Santiago-listed Enjoy SA was founded by members of the Martinez family in 1975 and currently employs some 5,000 people at five-star venues in Chile and Argentina. However, the company has been heavily impacted as the coronavirus pandemic led to the temporary shuttering of its properties and in September pronounced that its annual net debt had grown by in excess of 22% year-on-year to stand at about $546 million despite it holding a little over $117 million in ready cash.

Secret surprise:

Rodrigo Larrain serves as the General Manager for Enjoy SA and he reportedly told the news domain at Memesita.com that no one associated with his company had known about these latest merger talks prior to the revelation from Martinez. As such and he purportedly furthermore explained that it is currently not possible to give any further details on the planned merger or speculate as to when such an arrangement may be completed.

Larrain reportedly told Memesita.com…

“In the event that the company has new information regarding the aforementioned operation, it will be duly informed to the market.”