Merkur AG has agreed to acquire 95% of Casigrangi, the French holding company that controls listed operator Société Française de Casinos (SFC), in a transaction worth around €31.5m. The deal gives the German group seven land-based casinos in France and is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2027.
Merkur, owned by the Gauselmann Family Foundation, is buying the stake from GPG Groupe Philippe Ginestet and DOFA. DOFA keeps the remaining 5% under reciprocal put and call options. Because Casigrangi holds the controlling interest in SFC, which is listed on Euronext Paris, the change of control triggers a mandatory tender offer for the shares Merkur does not own.
A 196% premium on the 240-day average
Merkur will offer €6.19 per SFC share. That is a 195.9% premium to the 240-day volume-weighted average price, a 145.2% premium to the 60-day volume-weighted average price, and a 157.9% premium to the closing price of €2.40 on 27 August 2026.
SFC is a small listed company with limited free float, and the size of the premium reflects the distance between where the shares had been trading and what a strategic buyer will pay for control of licensed French casino assets. Casino licences in France are tied to individual communes under agreements with local authorities, which makes buying an existing operator the practical route into the market.
The tender offer will be filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in the first half of 2027, after completion. The acquisition also needs approval from the French Ministry of the Interior under Article L. 323-3, and employee consultation procedures have to run first.
Seven casinos and €3.5m of EBITDA
Casigrangi operates three casinos directly, in Granville, Megève and Mimizan. SFC runs four more, in Châtel-Guyon, Collioure, Gruissan and Port-la-Nouvelle. All seven are small to mid-size venues in regional and coastal towns rather than the large resort properties that account for most French casino revenue.
SFC, whose chairman and chief executive is Dominique Gortari, expects gross gaming revenue of €22.5m for the 2025-2026 financial year, net gaming revenue of €13.3m, net revenue of €14.2m after levies, and EBITDA of about €3.5m.
In a statement, Merkur said:
Merkur firmly believes that Casigrangi’s proven track record, resilience, and market expertise, combined with Merkur’s pan-European presence and technological capabilities, make it the ideal partnership to strengthen and develop its presence in France.
The third French casino takeover since 2025
The Merkur deal follows two other acquisitions of French land-based operators in quick succession. In July, Banijay Group, the parent of online operator Betclic, agreed to buy JOA Groupe and the 33 resorts it runs in the country. In January 2025, Austrian group Novomatic acquired the 11 establishments of Vikings Casinos for an undisclosed sum.
Each of the three buyers has a substantial gaming business outside France. Merkur and Novomatic are machine manufacturers and arcade operators with European estates. Banijay owns Betclic, one of the largest licensed online sports betting and poker operators in the French market.
The online casino question
France is one of the few large European markets where online casino games remain prohibited. Sports betting, horse race betting and poker are licensed and supervised by the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), which has been active on other fronts this year, including a higher evidence bar for gambling fraud claims. Online slots and table games sit outside the licensing regime.
The government proposed regulating online casino as an amendment to the 2025 budget, then withdrew it after opposition from the land-based casino sector and from public health bodies. Casinos de France, the trade group representing the country’s largest casino operators, has spent the past few years promoting the JADE project, a proposed experimental framework for regulating online casino games in France.
Consolidation changes who is making that argument. Three French casino groups are now passing to owners with online or machine gaming operations elsewhere in Europe, which gives the case for a domestic online casino regime a different set of backers than it had when the 2025 budget amendment was pulled.
Pascal Chevremont, who became ANJ chair in June 2026, told a National Assembly committee before his appointment that the decision is not the regulator’s to make.
The role of the authority is to inform parliament if the discussion ever comes up. This legalisation could only happen following the discussion by the legislature.
Chevremont added that any framework would have to be tightly controlled and built around making the legal offer more attractive than the illegal one. His predecessor, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, had argued that legalising online casino would not remove the illegal market and described the product as one of the most addictive available.
None of that affects the mechanics of the Merkur transaction. The tender offer will be filed in the first half of 2027, and the Ministry of the Interior review covers ownership of the seven casinos rather than the games they are allowed to sell. By the time parliament returns to online casino, three French casino groups will be controlled by companies whose main business sits elsewhere in Europe.
Source: Société Française de Casinos
