Morning. This is the conference call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the combination of Lottomatica and CIRSA: Creating a Global Gaming Champion Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mirko Senesi, Head of IR at Lottomatica. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks, operator, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this announcement. I will hand now the floor to Guglielmo directly to kick off the call.
Thank you, Mirko, and good morning to everybody. I am Guglielmo Angelozzi. I am CEO of Lottomatica since 2014 and chairman since last year.
Laurence Van Lancker, CFO since 2021 and Deputy CEO since 2025.
Hi. This is Antonio Hostench, an engineer, like my two colleagues here. I joined CIRSA in 2008, and I was appointed CEO in 2022.
Okay. Let's start from page number four of the deck. Very happy to announce this transaction to you today through an all-share combination of CIRSA into Lottomatica. We are creating a global champion in gaming of [CIRSA] EUR 2 billion of adjusted EBITDA. As a result of the proposed combination, Lottomatica shareholders will own 67.5%, and CIRSA shareholders will own 32.5% of the combined entity, of which Blackstone will own 24%. CIRSA shareholders are going to receive an extraordinary dividend equal to EUR 262 million, which equals to EUR 1.56 per share prior to the merger completion, and immediately after the merger completion, the combined company will return capital to shareholders equal to EUR 744 million. This will happen in the form of a partial voluntary tender offer and/or extraordinary dividend.
We estimate a total run rate cost synergies of EUR 150 million to be achieved in three years. The net leverage will be slightly above our financial policy at 2.7 at completion, but with very clear path to the leverage within the leverage policy of 2.5. The buyback will continue before completion. After we complete the transaction, the board of director has already resolved to propose to the relevant AGMs plans to return a total of EUR 4 billion to shareholders over the next three years, which of course, includes the previous buyback and the EUR 744 million return post-merger completion. The key management of the combined company will be myself, Laurence Van Lancker, and Antonio, who just spoke, and Antonio Grau, who is the CFO of CIRSA. In terms of board of directors, we will have the addition of two directors nominated by Blackstone.
The board goes from 11 to 13. Page number five, a glance to the two companies as they are today. Lottomatica, as you know, is number one operator in Italy. We address a EUR 60 billion market. This year, we gave a guidance of EUR 940 million- EUR 980 million of EBITDA, then refining the guidance to guide towards the upper part, the high end of the range. Business mix is shy of 80% online and sports and 21% distributed gaming, 100% in Italy. Antonio, you want to spend a couple of words on CIRSA?
Yes, Guglielmo. Well, in our case, beyond Italy, we operate in Spain plus nine additional markets with significant growth potential, holding leading positions in eight of these geographies. For 2026, as we have done in the past 20 years, we remain confident in delivering EBITDA towards the upper end of our EUR 800 million-EUR 820 million guidance range with a strong cash conversion, as in the case of Lottomatica. The group also benefits from an attractive diversification across these 11 countries, where Spain accounts for half of the pie and three different business verticals.
Thank you, Antonio. Let's go to page number six of the deck. What is the investment proposition? It's unchanged compared to the standalone Lottomatica proposition. Growth continues to be what we had with Lottomatica standalone. As if you have a look at revenue growth of Lottomatica from H1 2024 to H1 2026, that's pretty much in line with CIRSA, 13% versus 11%. We have high cash flow generation in both cases, 80%+ in the case of Lottomatica, 70%+ in the case of CIRSA. Lottomatica, on a standalone basis, has been using these and the growth of the cash flow, of course, to provide compelling shareholders returns. We have given back to our shareholders 11% of the market cap since June 2025, and the stock has been growing in terms of price.
What this tells us is that the combined entity will be able to deliver the same type of growth, the same type of cash flow generation, and therefore, we will continue, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, with the same capital returns. The transaction is clearly accretive, and Laurence will comment on this under any possible metric. It provides great strategic return to build for the future of the company in the medium to long term. But at the same time, it doesn't change anything in the proposition of growth and returns that we've been delivering to our shareholders so far. Going more in details on the merits of the transaction on page number seven. Why are we doing this deal? Because we create a much larger company, a global champion with EUR 2 billion of EBITDA.
Because the combined entity will be 80%+ the leader in two of what can be considered among the best gaming markets around the world, Italy and Spain. We will also have leadership positions in other high-growth markets. Because we have synergies, easy synergies, cost synergies, cash synergies of EUR 150 million per year. Because this way we can accelerate CIRSA online growth, both organically and inorganically in new markets, leveraging on the capabilities of Lottomatica. This is a tremendous opportunity for the future for the combined entity. Also, this comes with a low-risk proposition as we put together two management teams and two companies which have been very well managed, have consistently delivered over the last 10 years. So there's very limited risk associated to this transaction.
As I mentioned, the combined entity will be able to deliver the same rate of growth and the same rate of shareholder distribution, but with a larger pro forma free float and liquidity.
Guglielmo, if I may, just to complement what you said, this is a fantastic combination. Two great companies with great assets and a shared track record of profitable growth. We have market-leading positions across our global footprint, but with still significant further upside, and we will be able to leverage both companies' capabilities to further accelerate our growth, particularly in the online segment, and as Laurence will explain later. Finally, from a capital market standpoint, especially for CIRSA shareholders, our shareholders will benefit from a step change in scale and liquidity that we could not deliver on a standalone basis, whilst also retaining the listing of the Spanish stock exchanges alongside Euronext Milan.
Thank you, Antonio. Let's go to the next page number eight of the deck. We, putting together Lottomatica and CIRSA, we create the second-largest listed gaming and sports betting operator globally. This is not clearly the reason why we do it. The reasons have been explained before, but at the same time, the global reach and the larger shoulders and the scale will provide a significant benefit. Page number nine is particularly interesting. You can see the two main markets, Italy and Spain, which will account for 80% of the total EBITDA. We are number one in each of these two markets, which are among the best globally. These two markets have been growing and will continue to grow very nicely on online. Spain even more than Italy.
Then you have the rest of the world, which is a portfolio of eight markets, in seven of which is 20% of the total. We will be having leadership position, which adds additional EUR 11 billion of total addressable market, but especially where online has been growing and will continue to grow at 30% per year. So we expand the total addressable market. 80% is Italy and Spain, the best markets. Great opportunity in the online and leadership positions in the markets where we operate. We go to the next page of the presentation, which is page number 10. As you can appreciate in the combined entity, said already Italy and Spain 80%. 97% of EBITDA comes from number one market positions and online and sports will be roughly half of our business. Then we will have the other two quarters will be casinos and distributed gaming.
Yes, Guglielmo. To add an additional point here, our casino business is a growing segment with high margin, high cash conversion, and based on high-quality properties, which are visited today by millions of local customers every year. Apart from the business being extremely interesting by itself, we think that this is a great platform also to be leveraged for the online business through the omnichannel model we both operate. The combination of our companies will certainly help accelerate that plan.
Thank you, Antonio. Let's go to page number 11, which is a focus on the synergies. The number we put is not particularly, I would say, demanding. It's OpEx savings on the usual things that we've dealt with many times before. It's about procurement, it's about technology cost, it's about all the sports betting, trading, and risk management, shared services, G&A, and this easily adds up to EUR 101 million. Then we will have other cash synergies. If you assume that we can bring the CIRSA financing cost in line with the Lottomatica financing cost of additional EUR 40 million, so you get to EUR 150 million run rate synergies, basically 4% of the combined operating cost base. As I said, not particularly demanding given the track record that we have.
This is, again, it's the usual things that we've been doing at length in other deals that we will do together with Antonio and his team. It doesn't include a single euro coming from the online opportunity, which is also one of the key points of this deal, and it's very material. Reasons for this, you can find at page number 12. Let's go to the bottom of it. How do you do online? You have a core technology, you have a CRM and digital infrastructure also empowered by AI. You need to have a strong product portfolio. We've learned that in order to compete properly in online, you need to be able to use a pure online model, but also to have omnichannel capability in several markets.
We used to be in a relatively poor situation in 2017 as Lottomatica because our technology was relying upon a very fragmented stack, with no group-wide infrastructure, lots of third party. We basically had no control on the technology. There was no, on the data and on the CRM, no unified data layer, no particularly advanced CRM. One fits all marketing approach. The product portfolio was very thin and totally reliant upon third-party content. We had very limited, I would say, digital integration, and basically online and retail were running as totally separate channel, with the exception of the sports betting part. Today, we have full control on our tech stack. It's unified, it's state-of-the-art, and it's a key resource of the group. It's a key asset of the group.
On top of this, we have another layer of technology, which is done by the Lottomatica core platform and the AI platform, which is called LAMP, whereby you can add all the digital marketing capabilities, and you can deliver superior marketing performance as shown simply by, for example, one of the many KPIs is the increase of the retention rate from a few years ago to today. The offer depth is enormous compared to a few years ago. Just to mention one, 10 times increase in terms of sport markets that we offer per match. Together, we can operate a pure online model, for example, with BetFlag, or very strong omnichannel proposition, both in sports betting and in iGaming. We have gone from 200,000 customers to 2.2 million today, which is pretty significant. Where does CIRSA stand today?
Is present in attractive markets, and they have very good, talented local expertise with perfect knowledge of the market and of the consumers, but the technology is still fragmented. There is lots of third-party components, especially in sports. There is also a significant runaway from growth in online casino, and also the customer base that they have is an incredible platform to work on for the future. I will leave the floor to Laurence to continue with the rest of the presentation.
Thank you, Guglielmo. We are on to page 13. This slide illustrates the upside visually. If you see on the left-hand side, our online share of EBITDA went from single digit to around 2/3 of the total EBITDA. This is a result of strong organic growth, as well as the acquisitions that we have carried out throughout the years. On the right-hand side, you can see how the margins have improved significantly as we gain scale. This is exactly where CIRSA is standing today. It is where we were several years ago. We believe, and we strongly believe, that we can deploy the same proven playbook to accelerate CIRSA's online and omnichannel strategy, which will be able to unlock the superior customer economics, which will then, of course, be reflected in the financial performance and the expected financial performance.
This is for us really the attractive opportunity for the combined group to grasp. You go on to page 14. This chart is quite self-telling. Simply put, both companies are already very well-run. These are great businesses with very consistent performance and with a relentless focus on execution. This shows also that we have both grown adjusted EBITDA consistently quarter-over-quarter over the previous year, except for during the COVID restrictions, growth has been there unabated for the last 10 years. This also means that we can focus on how we can accelerate the combined strategy and shareholder value creation.
Adding a point here, Laurence, I think this is really a testament on what these two management teams have been doing. In our case, for almost 20 years, delivering quarter on quarter growth. I am convinced that the new merged group will continue to do, going forward. Here, one personal note that I would like to mention. I would like to specially thank Joaquim Agut, who has led CIRSA since 2006. He gave me also the opportunity to lead the company in 2022 and has been fully supportive throughout this transaction, and I wanted to take the chance to express my thanks to him.
Thanks, Antonio. Moving on to page 15. Here we can see how the combined entity has very attractive financial attributes. We have EUR 2 billion of pro forma EBITDA growing at 10%-11% on a 2026 basis, with sector-leading margins in excess of 40%. The transaction is also highly accretive on both earnings and cash flow per share. This is a double digit on the double digit. That provides a clear value creation opportunity for our shareholders. Most importantly, what part of the formula that is part of our investment thesis is that we will continue to preserve the capital allocation flexibility on shareholder distributions that we've been doing so far. This includes a EUR 744 million post-completion capital return. We will maintain our dividend policy of 30% of adjusted net profit, and we will continue our buyback program.
To put this into numbers. The board contemplates to return up to EUR 4 billion of capital over the next three years post-closing, subject to the relevant approvals. Moving on to page 16. When we bring everything together, this combination continues our compounding profitable growth story. It is highly cash generative. It is highly accretive on a double digit on both earnings and cash flow. It preserves our capital allocation flexibility to keep delivering attractive returns and increases scale and liquidity for all shareholders. Again, as Guglielmo said a number of times during this presentation, this acquisition is consistent with our story of growth and capital. It's just at larger scale and more diversified. Moving on to page 17. This slide recaps the key terms of the transactions that we discussed earlier with a little bit more detail.
The only thing I would note is that the combined group here is expected to remain listed on both the Euronext Milan as well as the Spanish stock exchanges. Page 18. We talk about timing. The expectations that we will have EGMs that will be convened in Q4 of this year. We anticipate that the final regulatory clearances will be in the first quarter of 2027, and the transaction completion is expected in Q2 2027. Lottomatica shares will also be dual listed, as I said earlier, in Spain at this time. The post-closing capital return is expected to fall in Q2 2027 or as soon as practicable thereafter. With this, we conclude the presentation.
Thank you. Would you like to begin the Q&A session?
Yeah, operator. Yes. We can open up for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you so much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. To remove your question, please press star and two. We kindly ask you to use handsets when asking questions. The first question comes from Ben Shelley of UBS.
Hi, I'll stick with three questions. I guess my first question is, many investors were attracted to Lottomatica's straightforward Italian market leadership position. Why is broadening the investment story beyond Italy the right strategic decision at this stage? My next question is, why CIRSA? Why was CIRSA the right strategic choice versus other consolidation opportunities within European gaming? My last question is around the technology and operating models. A significant part of the strategic rationale appears to be centered on Lottomatica's technology capabilities. Can you elaborate on the key differences between the two technology stacks today and where you see the biggest opportunities to create value? Thanks very much.
Yeah. Thanks, Ben. Guglielmo, I will take this one. Look, the simplicity of the story of Lottomatica is clear. But the beauty of the story was also the growth and the capital returns. Now, if you think several years forward, we build the company for also the next 5- 10 years. This is not an acquisition, and we do not think it is even in contrast with the current model. This was, when you think about all the things out there, the only possible way, it is not obvious, but when you dig into it is the only possible way to confirm t he short- and mid-term value of the model of Lottomatica, we basically get the same growth of the combined entity and will continue to give the same, if not slightly more, capital returns to investors given the combined cash flows.
To put on top of that, the benefits that an M&A can bring without the risks and without disrupting the original model of Lottomatica. Basically, very limited risks because these two companies, as you have seen, have been managed super well in the last 10 years and more. So there is no turnaround to be made. There is nothing like that to be made. You have new markets. Spain is a fantastic market. The online is lagging behind Italy. It is a wonderful opportunity. It is fragmented. CIRSA is the leader there, has all the knowledge and the assets. Plus, you have the other opportunities out there.
This way, you get the perfect combination of the values of the Lottomatica model growth, and by the way, CIRSA growth has been very stable and very predictable across the years. So it is not something like you see assets out there are sometimes growth, then they slow down then. It is very good markets, very good regulation, and very stable and predictable growth. So you get the same stable and predictable growth, and you get the capital returns. You get no additional risk, and you get the benefits of the new markets and the online opportunities on top of the synergies, which are also pretty significant out there. That is why this makes a lot of sense to us. Simplicity is one point, but then you should look at the risk. It does not add anything negative to the risk. The risk profile, according to us, stays the same.
80% is from two best markets that you have around there, plus you have the other opportunities, and you do not change the model of Lottomatica of growth and capital returns. You just make it larger and more sustainable. Going to the question of the online and the technology, this is a key part. It is not priced in because we did not put a number there. We just put OpEx. But clearly, it is a key part of the strategic rationale. What is the difference between the two tech stack? It is pretty straightforward. We do have a tech stack as Lottomatica. It has been built in the last many years. So we started from a third-party patchwork of tools, player account management, betting engine. It was all external.
But today we have a really top-tier internal tech stack, which is not only the platform, but it is also the layer above that, which is key in competing today in a digital business. CIRSA has a strong knowledge and a strong presence in those markets, but doesn't have its own internal tech stack. It uses third parties, and different third parties depending on the market. So here comes another big opportunity. I don't want to dig into that, but I think it is apparent where the opportunity is.
Thanks very much.
My pleasure.
The next question is from Charlie Muir-Sands of BNP Paribas.
Morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my questions. You have given quite a helpful presentation with respect to where you see CIRSA today with its online business in terms of share and margin versus where Lottomatica's journey has gone, too. I just wondered if you could reflect on what you see from a front-end proposition perspective. What does CIRSA have today versus what could bring to it with your systems? How would you compare CIRSA with its main competition in the Spanish markets today? Is it where it is because of the market or because of its relative proposition? The second slightly broader question is, I appreciate you have emphasized you see relatively low risks around this deal, but just in terms of the key risks that you are considering, can you outline what they are and what your mitigation plans are in place?
I note you are retaining senior management, for example, but any other examples of things that you have ensured you have to lower the risk of this deal? Thank you.
Yeah. Look, in terms of front ends and capability proposition to the customer and the online and capability to compete, I would say CIRSA, let us take Spain. CIRSA has incredible knowledge of the market, the consumers, in general, also of the business. Clearly, CIRSA is competing with guys, also in Spain, who have, thinking about sports, for example, a very good product, an international product which has been proven in many markets. Some of these guys we have seen also in Italy, and we have done pretty well compared to them, both in terms of product, tech, and digital marketing. I do not want to mention names, but I do not want to go market by market. If you start with the most relevant one, which is Spain, you will see exactly that.
You will see a company with a huge understanding of the market, on the consumers, with an incredible retail platform, which can be leveraged for the online. At the same time, some competitors who are big guys international with a deep expertise deep expertise in the two main verticals, that is to say, sports betting and iGaming. I think with our technology and product, we are one notch ahead in terms of that, and we can compete. If you put these two things together, their incredible presence and know-how and knowledge of the market and the consumer, and retail assets for the omnichannel, and our strong, very strong technology and product assets, which are competing and are winning the competition with those competitors, the same competitors in Italy, I think we can do very well. Going about the risk, I do not know, I will make a comment.
I don't know if Laurence wants to add something, also Antonio. On the senior management, I think, but Antonio can comment himself. I think they're all very enthusiastic about the deal. This can help them also accelerate within a combined entity, the development of the business, and tackle these opportunities together. We will be on the same long-term plan, which will have the Lottomatica structure. Stock option, pure focus on the value creation, on the stock price appreciation of the combined entity. But I leave it to Antonio, I guess. The top management, you tell us how it is.
On our side, we see this as a great opportunity because, as Guglielmo said, there is no overlap between the companies, almost no overlap. We just see creating one of the biggest groups in the world in gaming terms. And we'll be sharing the long-term plan that Lottomatica has, which is very attractive. So, the risk is minor, and we feel very well protected, and joining this long-term plan will be a plus to our people.
Thank you. Antonio, I don't know, Laurence, if you have additional comment on the risks.
No. Again, going back to what we were saying before, I think that we have a phenomenal management team in CIRSA. We have a very good management team in Lottomatica, and we both look forward to continuing together this journey and pursue this joint effort in developing the online opportunity here, which is really what we think is, in addition to the cost synergies that we mentioned earlier, is really the attractive part of one of the key attractive features of this combination.
Let me add one thing to the story, that we are in an industry that is growing everywhere. When you look at this, synergies may play a role, but the game here is about capturing the growth that we have in the industry and gaining market share.
Great. Many thanks. Good luck.
Thank you.
The next question is from Adrien de Saint Hilaire of Bank of America.
Morning, everyone, and well done for the hard work during the summer. A few questions, please. There are many cross-border M&A which have failed to deliver on initial expectations in the gaming space. What are the learnings you've taken from those, and why do you think this time could be different? Secondly, I understand the appeal in buying into betting and gaming assets. I am less sure about gaining exposure to casinos, especially in Latin America. Do these assets, in your view, are core to the new company, or could you consider offloading some? Then maybe lastly, I do not think your synergy assumption includes anything for CapEx. Is there nothing at all that we should factor in, or do you think there could be something there as well?
Yeah, I will start, Adrien. This is Guglielmo with the first two, and maybe Laurence, you want to go on the third one. There is lots of failed M&A in the industry. Yes, lots of failed M&A of international M&A and lots of failed local M&A. But we have done a bunch of local M&A, very successful local M&A. What we think is what we learned from these. First of all, in many cases you had M&A, which was of assets that had to be, were so-so, were not really leadership, they were second tier. The promise was to completely change the nature and the competitive position of the asset. In many cases, a turnaround. This is not the case.
Or maybe they had, I do not know, if you look at the online, they had a captive native, their own technology, which had to be integrated and then was not integrated, or the plan was not to integrate it at all. In this case, guys, it is a completely different situation. You have a group, not a single company in a single country. A group which has been a solid group for 10 years and delivering data. There is no turnaround to be made. It is already very well managed. It is number one in its markets.
So you are not hoping that you are a second-tier player or number three or number four and you are going to improve. No. It is already number one, and it has been number one for a while. On the online part of the story, we are not counted upon going there. There is already their own tech. The tech is external.
What CIRSA is adding today is an incredible experience about the marketing and the access to the market and the access to the customer base, but everything is external. When you go and touch that, we have already done it a bunch of times, it is pretty much the same whether you are doing in a local market or the drivers and the tech is pretty much the same. So I think this is the most important difference. We are not cherry-picking country after country and adding, which may well work, may work as well. There are cases also which have been successful, but we are not going that path. We are going a very different path. We are going through an addition of a group which is already consistent, integrated, needs nothing. We can add them on the online. That is what it is.
And of course, scale and synergies come from the obvious stuff like procurement. It is a completely different type of acquisition than many of the cases you are thinking about. On the casinos, look, the casinos, we should take some time, and we also have time going forward to understand better that part. That is not like the gaming machines that, for example, we have in Italy. That is a growing business. Think about U.S. regional casinos. It is a destination stores, very well run, growing business, very high profitability, above 40%, very high cash generation.
This is a very nice business. It is not a decreasing distributed gaming machines business. It is a very nice business. And, by the way, there are million peoples visiting those casinos, which CIRSA knows everything because of their loyalty programs and stuff, visiting these locations every year. Think about how valuable is that asset of the customer base.
And when you go to it, the example of Italy is very important. You can appreciate how the experience is different, but the games are very much the same. So the opportunity to leverage that for the online conversion, which was already in the plan of CIRSA, by the way. We are just going faster. We just can go faster with this integration, but it was already in the plan of CIRSA. So you have to look at this. This is a different animal than the distributed gaming that we have in Italy. Again, it is a business which is very interesting per se, but on top of that, it is a formidable asset.
If you think that we also think that our asset of gaming machines, which is actually decreasing in the market in Italy, is a wonderful asset to grow market share and to convert customers to iGaming online, and it is very accretive because of that, and it is a decreasing business, think what we can do with the CIRSA asset.
Yeah. And a great financial profile as well, as you mentioned. Listen, on the CapEx synergies, no, we haven't baked in any CapEx synergies. We have only OpEx synergies and the other cash synergies from financing, as we have written on the slide. That does mean we will execute on this as well. But for the time being, you should not assume them. Then as we progress with the integration, we will update you in due course.
The next question, gentlemen, is from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita.
Good morning. A few questions. The first is a follow-up on the key transactional risk or milestones you have to accomplish. Do you see any issue from the Italian antitrust and on the AGM approvals? Second, on the tech stack, if I'm not wrong, your strategic commitment basically is to be able to accelerate CIRSA online growth. How complex is it to bring your tech stack abroad? Is there any complexity related to regulation? How long will it take, in your view, before being able to see some benefit on the top line level? Third, maybe for my better understanding of the Spanish market profile. Can you share some data on the existing online penetration and current market share and competition?
On the Italian antitrust, we don't think we are in a risky situation because Italy is not the core of this deal, and this doesn't change the level of concentration in the country and will still be below 40% in each relevant market. We don't see that. In terms of tech stack, Domenico, that's true. It's never easy to deploy a technology and substitute a previous technology and a previous product. But, A, we've done it several times. B, it will for sure require localization, because you need to localize currencies, some processes, some regulation, regulatory elements. But we're confident that will be done. We haven't provided a number and a timing and a value for the top-line synergies. But we're confident that this can be done within the same time frame of the synergies that we have announced. That will go along the same path.
In terms of Spain, I'll give you just two data points. I think CIRSA has 6% market share in online, and you can imagine how the market is fragmented as it is in the top five players. You have people like Bet365 down there, just to give you an idea, as I was mentioning before. It's a situation which is very similar to what you used to have in Italy. We put a few years ago in the slide, but that you used to have in Italy a few years ago. A very similar situation in terms of level of fragmentation, concentration in the top five, type of competitors, type of players, a very similar situation. The spend per capita is still way below the Italian one with a country which is doing fairly well in terms of macro, at least compared to other European countries.
Thank you.
Welcome.
The next question is from Ed Young of Morgan Stanley.
Good morning. I have three, please. First of all, you quoted CIRSA's growth metrics quite a few times, but it also, that guidance embeds around EUR 150 million- EUR 200 million of annual M&A spend to achieve that. I just wondered if you had any initial reflections on how you think about the pro forma M&A spend, given some of that was bolt-ons and online, but clearly the business will be bigger now. The second question was around multichannel. You have spoken about accelerating multichannel a couple of times. I guess most material additional market is Spain, but there is also LatAm markets there. I just wondered if you could comment on any, if there are any philosophical differences around multichannel that you will take on. Then the third is within Italy, you mentioned antitrust a second ago, but clearly that is the in-market part of consolidation.
Just wondered if you could give any commentary on your view on ePlay as an asset and how it will fit into your portfolio. Thanks.
Yeah, maybe, Ed, I'll just go respond to the first question where you said yes, that's the annual spend that CIRSA indicated. The projections that we've included, which is, I think, is quite important to understand, is because of the combined entities cash flow generation. The EUR 4 billion that we referred to over the three-year period post-closing already takes that into account. It takes into account that CIRSA will continue to spend in line with the guidance that they've indicated. On the multichannel, Ed, yeah, there are differences. Spain has many things in common with Italy, resembles Italy under many points of view. LatAm, it's several different countries. You go from, for example, cases like Mexico, where the market is not fragmented at all, so the opportunity is completely different, and it's really an online business with the omnichannel which has probably a marginal role.
You have to go to dig into country by country. That is one of the key points. CIRSA has a very strong knowledge of these markets, of the regulation, of the consumers, of the competition, of the local partners that you can have. If you couple that with tech and product, that's a very good mix. Long story short, Spain is very similar to us. LatAm, you have to open that. You will find things like Mexico, which are at the opposite extreme, and others like Peru or Colombia, which have more similarities. Going to Italy, what do we think about ePlay? ePlay has done a very good job in the last year and with the new framework of the concession in fitting into the new concession framework.
It has a model which is doing very well in working with the new setup for the omnichannel, so-called PVR, within the new scheme. I would say that the ePlay that you have today, which has evolved a lot within the new concession scheme and has totally adapted to the new regulation and new framework, is a very good asset also to complete some of the things that we had started to do in that space with other initiatives like Totosì and so forth.
Thank you.
Welcome.
The next question is from Francisco Riquel of Alantra.
Yes. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to ask about the synergy target. You plan to boost CIRSA's online business, and I wonder how much of this potential is included in your synergy target procurement or any other OpEx savings. If not, if you can comment on the upside potential that you expect. How do you see operating margins in online businesses converging over time? Given the gap that we have today, how do you see margins online in the future once the synergies have been achieved? Also, if you can comment on the risk of potential revenue attrition in Italy, if you merge local operations there, both offline and online, if you see any risk there at all. Thank you.
I can take these. On the synergy that we've included, none of these synergies factor in the upside in the online that we've just been going through. What we can tell you, we're not going to give a number on what the upside on the online opportunity is, but this is all reflected in revenue growth and margin improvement. We're not going to set targets today. As you've seen in the history of the firm, as you gain scale, it's a very scalable business model, the online business. We do think there's room to improve margins, and there's definitely room to improve the revenue growth, which is what we've been talking about by leveraging all the unique assets that CIRSA has in each of the respective jurisdictions. Those include the talented management that is local, and the omni-channel assets.
The very high-quality land-based footprint they have that we can leverage to also push the omni-channel opportunity. On the third question about revenue attrition, no, we do not expect revenue attrition. These are complementary brands and the complementary models, and we have a history of managing a multi-brand business in Italy, and we already have several brands that run in our business and that are complementary, and we haven't seen any revenue attrition.
Thank you.
Let me add on this, Laurence. Mirko, good to hear you. We have been going through this Italian online potential overlap, and we have seen so far that the ePlay business model is really very complementary, and as of today, I do not think the Lottomatica brands are going through this business model that will be very complementary.
Thank you.
The next question is from Andrea Randone of Intermonte.
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. I have just a couple of questions. The first one is, again, on LatAm, just because I have a limited personal knowledge on the market. If you see any short-term risk, I am asking that because I have read about possible tax hikes in some areas, but more in general, I want your reassurance on the guidance that you confirmed today. The second question is about if you can give us a comment on what you expect from Blackstone. There is a lockup, three months, that is not too long, but there is also the possibility to appoint two board members. That sounds like a more mid to long-term approach. If you can give us more color on this point. Thank you.
So maybe on the first question in the countries in Latin America. First of all, you get to know these assets well over time, but this is the best part of the LatAm that you can actually find. So from a macro perspective, these countries are, in aggregate, very attractive. That is the first consideration. The second one is, the taxation regime has been very stable on a particular retail level. You have had some tweaks in the online taxation, but ultimately, at the group level, the impact was minor. What I think is important to outline here is that these markets grow both in retail and in online. So in online, there is still very ample room to grow, and in retail, there is a continued growth that we have seen in the mid-single-digit territory. So we continue to see this as an attractive exposure on a combined basis.
Listen, on Blackstone, as I said, Blackstone has been a very supportive shareholder of CIRSA. They believe strongly in the combination, and as a result, we are very happy to have them on board with two appointees. I do not think there is much to read, frankly, in lockups or other. They have rolled into this to the combined entity because they believe that this is a very compelling opportunity, and we are very happy to have them on board.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
That was the final question, gentlemen. Mr. Senesi, back to you for any closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thank you all investors for joining. We will be on the road in the coming days, so very happy to meet you all. Thank you, operator. We can close the call.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.