Aristocrat time line
May 8, 2023
Aristocrat Leisure time line.
June 1996: Aristocrat Leisure floated on the ASX selling 39.3 million shares at $2.90 apiece, giving it an opening market capitalisation of $303 million and valuing the Ainsworth family's residual 58% stake at $175 million. The float was under-written by Macquarie and raised $114m from the public. See AFR coverage.
July 1997: Colorado gaming regulator deemed three of Len's sons - Stephen Ainsworth, Christian Ainsworth and Simon Ainsworth - to be unsuitable to work in the business, along with CEO John Dougall. See AFR coverage at the time.
January 2001: Aristocrat announces $325m cash purchase of Las Vegas based Casino Data Systems.
August 2001: shares peaked at $7.30 giving the company a market cap of $3.28 billion.
December 2002: announces big push into lucrative Russian video slots market.
May 2003: shares crashed 39% to below $1 after profit warning sparking Len and two of his sons to speak out against the management in this AFR feature.
August 2007: Len Ainsworth's AGI announces $50m loss bringing accumulated losses to $85m and audited net assets down to just $15m. It was very hard going competing with Aristocrat over those first 5 years.
August 2009: Len Ainsworth's AGI announces $12.5m loss bringing accumulated losses to $116m.
August 2009: Len's son Kjerulf Ainsworth wins messy court case over a gifted Mercedes to a former lover - court heard his art and petrol station business turns over $100m a year. Judge slammed both parties.
August 2011: Len Ainsworth's AGI announces $23m profit bringing accumulated losses down to $95.7m.
August 2013: Len Ainsworth's AGI announces $52.2m profit bringing accumulated losses down to only $28.5m and net assets up to $204m. Shareholders in front for the first time in a decade.
August 2015: Len Ainsworth's AGI announces $75.8m profit bringing accumulated losses down to only $18.3m with net assets up to $280m.
February 2016: Len Ainsworth sold 172.1 million shares in AGI to Austrian Novomatic at $2.75 a share, netting the 92 year old around $470 million. Minority shareholders didn't get the same offer and in January 2023 the stock had crashed back to 95c.
April 2017: Paul Ainsworth sells 500k worth of Aristocrat shares to reduce his stake to 4.99% and reduce disclosure burdens.
August 2017: AGI announces $37.9m profit bringing accumulated losses down to only $8.4m and lifting net assets to $344.6m.
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