Accel Entertainment’s Minority Shareholder DOES NOT Consent to TPG Transaction

Well, this is strange.  Right on the heels of what appeared to be a successful SPAC combination announcement for TPG Pace Holdings, Clairvest Equity Partners V (“Clairvest”), a large minority shareholder of Accel Entertainment, announced tonight via press release that they DO NOT consent to the business combination between TPG Pace Holdings and Accel.  Further to that, Clairvest stated that they did not consent as per the organizational documents and and are working with their “legal and other advisors to consider its options with respect to the announced transaction“.

That was pretty much the extent of the press release, but the implications are that things are not going to go as smoothly as everyone hoped for this combination.  The fact that Clairvest felt the need to put out a press release on this information is not a great sign. Perhaps this means that discussions about the matter between Accel, TPGH and Clairvest have reached a point where Clairvest felt the need to “put it out to the public”, which, is a bit of a, not “deal-killer”, but a “deal-holder-upper”. But that sometimes gives the same result.  Especially with SPACs that need to watch the clock.  Remember…TPGH only has until September 30th to complete.

Unfortunately, this is all the information we have so far, so hopefully we get more clarity tomorrow, or at least in the coming week or two. However, this is certainly an unexpected twist.  You can read the press release HERE, but we’ll update as further information becomes available. Stay tuned…