Who Owns NOVOMATIC? Ownership, Management and Control

Who owns NOVOMATIC? The company and its direct shareholders

The legal company at the centre of this analysis is NOVOMATIC AG, an Austrian joint-stock company registered under FN 69548b. It is not a separately quoted public share like Ainsworth Game Technology. Its ownership must be traced through the companies and foundations above it, with the date of each disclosure preserved.

The Nevada Gaming Commission's April 2026 file identifies two direct shareholders. It is unusually useful because it names both legal entities and their respective percentages, instead of describing the group vaguely as 'family-owned'.

There is a material update to the chronology. The Nevada regulator approved applications concerning a proposed 16.6% share issue and transfer involving Gryphon Invest AG and NOVUM SWISS AG in April 2026. Regulatory approval, however, is not a substitute for a completed Austrian allotment and an updated register of shareholders. The Austrian register subsequently recorded a share-capital change on 31 October 2026 and now displays share capital of €36,406,048. That later event makes it particularly important not to reuse April's 89.96%/10.04% split as though nothing had changed. The available short public entry does not, on its own, establish the recipients and final share percentages.

This is a private corporate ownership question, not a share-price query. NOVOMATIC AG is privately held; Ainsworth's quotation concerns a separate listed company.

Novo Invest, private foundations and the 2021 ownership story

The next layer is Novo Invest GmbH, an Austrian holding company, FN 381832v. Its public register entry identifies five shareholders and their registered nominal contributions. Against the company's recorded €50 million share capital, the figures give this exact division as checked on 12 November 2026:

These are percentages of Novo Invest's registered nominal capital, not direct ownership stakes in NOVOMATIC AG. Nor does this public entry independently establish separate voting agreements, beneficial entitlements or foundation beneficiaries. JFG Privatstiftung, FN 596391x, and VZZZ Privatstiftung, FN 545390w, remain distinct private foundations. A November 2025 New Jersey regulatory order independently recorded their 75.10% and 4.90% interests in Novo Invest at that earlier date.

The 2021 account is often shortened to 'Graf gave away 20% of NOVOMATIC'. That obscures the legal distinction. It concerned 20% of Novo Invest, not a direct transfer of 20 percentage points in NOVOMATIC AG. Contemporary reporting described a 10% holding-company allocation to Thomas Graf and 5% each to Wimmer and Presch. Today's EVI nominal contributions support that 10/5/5 split, without establishing all private rights attached to the holdings. For the wider chronology, see NOVOMATIC's company history.

NOVUM SWISS also requires its own box in any ownership chart. Nevada's April record identified it as a shareholder of NOVOMATIC AG, and separately identified Johann Friedrich Graf as its sole shareholder in that regulatory qualification chain. NOVUM SWISS's holdings, including Gryphon Invest and the ACE SWISS businesses, cannot all be relabelled as subsidiaries owned directly by NOVOMATIC AG. Shared people and licensed ADMIRAL branding do not change legal ownership. For the individual companies and operating brands, see our NOVOMATIC companies and brands map.

Who manages NOVOMATIC AG? The Executive Board

The company's current official imprint and Austrian company register identify three Executive Board members, rather than naming a sole chief executive. That is the answer a reader should receive when searching for a 'NOVOMATIC CEO'. It would be misleading to select the first person on an official list and present him as the chief executive without evidence for that specific title.

The Executive Board manages the company's business. Its members should not be confused with directors of Greentube, NOVOMATIC Africa or NOVOMATIC Americas, whose regional or subsidiary titles apply to different companies. In particular, Thomas Graf's chief executive role at Greentube does not make him the CEO of NOVOMATIC AG.

Nor should a historical CEO search result be treated as a current appointment. Harald Neumann's former management position belongs to an earlier period. The official 2026 corporate and register entries are the appropriate starting point for the present governing body.

Who sits on NOVOMATIC's Supervisory Board?

The Supervisory Board is distinct from the Executive Board. Its role is to oversee company management and participate in governance decisions under Austrian corporate law; it does not simply replace the executives in day-to-day operations.

NOVOMATIC announced a reorganisation of this body in January 2026. The official announcement says Birgit Wimmer became Chairwoman, succeeding Dr Bernd Oswald, who moved to another group role. The company's imprint and Austrian register list the following members:

Wimmer's chairmanship is a significant governance appointment, but it is not an appointment as NOVOMATIC's CEO. Descriptions of supervisory-board membership from 2019, or the composition of a subsidiary board, must not be substituted for this 2026 list.

Birgit Wimmer: shareholder, supervisory chair and other roles

Birgit Wimmer appears repeatedly in NOVOMATIC ownership searches because she holds several distinct positions. Each answers a different question: who oversees the Austrian company, who manages a holding vehicle, who sits on a foundation board and who has a reported economic stake.

The Austrian register names Wimmer as a manager and direct participant of Novo Invest GmbH. It also identifies her on the boards of JFG Privatstiftung and VZZZ Privatstiftung, alongside other foundation officers. These foundation-board functions are governance positions. They are not evidence that she personally owns the foundation's entire portfolio or can exercise all beneficiaries' economic rights.

In an Ainsworth Game Technology shareholder document dated 24 April 2026, the listed Australian company also described Wimmer as a 5% shareholder of Novo Invest GmbH. This dated issuer disclosure agrees with her €2.5 million contribution, or 5% of nominal capital, currently shown by Austria's EVI register. Neither source alone describes every personal voting or beneficial arrangement.

The same Ainsworth document records her appointment as a non-executive director on 26 March 2026 and explains that Ainsworth's board did not regard her as independent because of her NOVOMATIC-related directorships and shareholding interests. Its stated governance approach was to prevent her participating in matters that could present a conflict between those roles and Ainsworth's interests. This is a documented governance relationship, not an allegation of misconduct.

Further Swiss and other board positions appear in Ainsworth's disclosed director profile. They should be read as roles within specifically named entities, never as proof that every entity is controlled by NOVOMATIC AG. For the more detailed Australian equity context, see our NOVOMATIC capital and Ainsworth shares analysis.

What does 'control' mean in the NOVOMATIC group?

An ownership chart needs at least four different labels. Direct shareholding means shares held in a named company. Indirect economic exposure follows a chain through other companies. Board office describes responsibility to govern or supervise. Regulatory control can require disclosure of a person with significant influence even where the person is not the immediate majority shareholder.

British Companies House filings provide a useful test of these distinctions:

The distinction within Greentube UK is particularly instructive. Companies House records Greentube GmbH in the high-shareholding and voting-rights categories, while Johann Graf has an active significant-influence/control entry. Those are not inconsistent: the register is describing different kinds of control over the same company.

A UK PSC notice is not a consolidated Austrian register, and a foundation trustee is not automatically its beneficial owner. The reliable question is therefore not merely 'Who controls NOVOMATIC?' but 'Which legal company, which right, and on what date?'

How we verified ownership and management

Our research was reviewed on 12 November 2026 against the official records described below. The evidence comes from several jurisdictions for a reason: the Nevada Gaming Commission supplies a dated direct-shareholder snapshot and regulatory decision; Austria's EVI Firmenbuch identifies company officers, holding participants and the later October capital event; New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement records the foundation stakes in a dated 2025 order; and Companies House shows the precise UK control notifications. NOVOMATIC's own imprint and announcement establish its two boards. Ainsworth's ASX document supplies the cross-directorship and independence disclosure.

The material limitation concerns NOVOMATIC AG, not Novo Invest: April 2026 AG ownership percentages cannot be presented as a complete November 2026 AG cap table after the registered October capital change. Novo Invest's five nominal contributions are publicly ascertainable today. The updated AG direct shareholders, their percentages and any connection between the Nevada-approved plan and Austrian registration still require authoritative transaction and shareholder records.

That distinction underpins the conclusion: Johann F. Graf founded NOVOMATIC; Novo Invest's registered nominal ownership is identifiable; and NOVOMATIC AG is managed and supervised by two different boards. What remains unverified is NOVOMATIC AG's final direct shareholder percentage map following October 2026.