Street Talk

Pokie machine maker Ainsworth close to paying out for shareholders

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Feb 10, 2025 – 5.00am

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Just over a year after Ainsworth Gaming Technology hung up the for-sale sign, its list of prospective bidders may have shrunk to one familiar name.

Sources told this column that the board of Ainsworth – the $246 million pokie machine maker founded by Aristocrat billionaire Len Ainsworth – has held informal discussions with its largest shareholder Novomatic in recent weeks, after preliminary interest from rival trade players failed to materialise into bids for the ailing business.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.