Ainsworth cashes in his chips
by Leon Gettler
Pokies billionaire Len Ainsworth is calling it a day and cashing out of the company he founded, Ainsworth Game Technology, after selling it to Austrian gaming company Novomatic.
The 92-year-old pokies giant says he will donate "a large chunk" of his $473 million windfall to charity.
For its part, Novomatic plans to keep its stake in the company at about 53 per cent and retain Ainsworth's ASX listing.
Ainsworth this week sold 172.1 million shares at $2.75 a share, making himself more than $470 million in the sale.
Ainsworth Game Technology plans to convene an emergency meeting for shareholders to vote on the transaction.
The sale was announced when the company reported its results. It posted a profit after tax in the first half of 2016 which was down 4 per cent to $33.1 million. However, the company boosted its net profit 7 per cent to $26.1 million when currency gains were stripped out.
Aimsworth’s family wealth has been estimated at $1.82 billion in the BRW 2015 Rich List.
In the 1990s, when Mr Ainsworth was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he gave his family a lucrative stake in Aristocrat Leisure.
As it turned out, the diagnosis proved to be false. Heartened by the news and with renewed energy, Mr Ainsworth went on to create his second pokies empire, Ainsworth Game Technology. That company competes now head to head with Aristocrat for pokie machine sales to casinos, pubs and clubs.
Since the diagnosis, Ainsworth has given away more than $30 million to medical research, including a donation to the redevelopment of Sydney's St Vincent's Private Hospital.
That includes a $1.25 million donation to create the Ainsworth Chair of Technology and Innovation, which is aimed at harnessing advancing technology and innovation look for new and improved treatments and interventions for childhood disabilities and illnesses.
Ainsworth told Fairfax Media that part of the windfall would go to his family but donating to charity was a big plus.
"I take the view I've been lucky in life and I should share my luck with my family," Mr Ainsworth said. "I think medicine and universities would be the target. If you can find a cure to something, that is a big prize in itself."
25th February 2016
