Endeavour Group Limited (ASX: EDV) shares finally made their way onto the ASX today. This comes after the Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) decided to spin off its liquor and hotels business.
The Endeavour share price opened this morning at $6.50, before falling to $6.10 at the time of writing.
Why did Woolworths demerge Endeavour?
Back in 2019, Woolworths announced it planned to demerge from its 85.4% holding in Endeavour. Although the restructure was completed in 2020, COVID-19 forced the postponement of the proposer demerger until 2021.
The retail conglomerate said the reason for the split was to maximise Woolworths' shareholder value over time. In addition, this would also create a simpler operating model which focuses on food and everyday needs.
As a result of the split, eligible shareholders receive 1 new Endeavour share for every share owned in Woolworths. This gives Woolworths and long-term joint venture partner, BMG, a 14.6% remaining interest each in Endeavour.
Managing director and CEO of Endeavour Steve Donohue said:
This is a very significant day for Endeavour Group's 28,000 team members throughout Australia, who are united around our purpose of creating a more sociable future together, and for our partners, customers and many other stakeholders.
We are excited about the future as we continue to focus on growth and building on the successful platform we have in place through our portfolio of trusted retail brands, including Dan Murphy's and BWS, as well as Australia's largest portfolio of hotels including many Australian icons such as Brisbane's Breakfast Creek Hotel and the Young & Jackson Hotel in Melbourne.
More on the Endeavour share price
Endeavour holds a portfolio of 332 hotels, 1,775 liquor licenced venues, 12,364 poker machines and 290 TABs and KENO outlets. As a whole, this makes the company one of the largest gaming operators and owner of poker machines in Australia.
At today's price, Endeavour has a market capitalisation of roughly $10.8 billion, with almost 1.8 billion shares on its registry.
