Bally Wulff Entertainment's secret owner was revealed in an official announcement made during the 2011 IMA trade show in Düsseldorf.
The acquisition of the Berlin-based manufacturer in 2007 by an unidentified Swiss investment fund was accompanied by the arrival on the board, as a representative of that owner, of Ulrich Schmidt, the owner of the major Schmidt Group which has a chain of up-market arcades in Germany.
It was generally agreed in the German industry that Schmidt himself was the mystery ‘Swiss’ owner which had taken over Bally Wulff. Not quite, it seems. The announcement made during IMA revealed that the Zugerberg 7th Asset Management plc equity owners are the Schmidt Group shareholders, but specifically excluding Ulrich Schmidt himself and his wife, Ursula. In fact, the shareholders who own Bally Wulff are Arne Schmidt, their son, Axel Schmidt, their nephew and Burkhard Revers.
Also Schmidt Group shareholders, the trio felt that it was time to reveal themselves as the new owners because their "commitment to date has been ratified and we are confident now that Bally Wulff has a bright future." The statement from the Schmidt Gruppe headquarters in Coesfeld went on: "The creed is to present customers and players with the best games the world has to offer on one single platform, the Gamestation. Alongside successful proprietary games, collaborations with other leading suppliers, including Atronic, Aristocrat and Amatic fulfil these high aspirations."
Bally Wulff managing director Tim Wittenbecher said: "The news will give a real buzz to the IMA show and to our sales team." He said that it had been decided to reveal the background to the takeover of Bally Wulff because the restructuring and financing of the company was now complete, the business was on a sound and successful footing and the past three years had seen it "made fit for future challenges through restructuring and streamlining."
