Camden Town owner bought out by gambling billionaire founder

The owner of Camden Market in London, Market Tech Holdings, agreed on Friday evening to be taken over by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi's LabTech Investments for almost £900m, with the shares down 35% since floating two and a half years ago.

Market Tech, which was founded by Sagi and is 71% owned by his LabTech vehicle, has agreed to a cash offer where shareholders will receive 188p in cash per share.

Sagi, who also owns FTSE 250-listed gambling software Playtech, floated Market Tech on AIM in 2014 at a price of 220p per share.

Since arriving in its initial public offer with 11 acres of Camden real estate, the 45-year-old has since grown this to 16 acres across Camden, including the Stables Market, Union Street Market, Camden Lock Market, the Camden Lock Village, plus property assets on Camden High Street, Kentish Town Road, Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm.

LabTech said it was taking Market Tech private as the fall in the share price to a material and persistent discount to NAV was making accessing capital more expensive for the company and restricted its ability to expand.

One of the factors weighing in the shares, Sagi's press release admitted, was the unusual mix of real estate and technology assets within Market Tech, while macro events and the wider performance of UK real estate shares had both weighed of late.

"Independently from Market Tech, LabTech has continued to invest in central London real estate assets, outside of the Market Tech Camden Town estate, and further develop its own global co-working offering. The board of LabTech believes that these interests are now best combined with Market Tech."

The offer therefore offers shareholders an opportunity for some cash liquidity in a short timeframe, even though this was 35% less than any investors from the time of the IPO.