Will Hill IPO Goes Smoothly
U.K. bookmaker William Hill is reporting success from its initial public offering on Monday. The company's stock price rose 7 percent above its issue price of 225 pence per share as soon as trading opened for the day.
The offer price of 225 pence per share meant that the company was immediately valued at £940 million.
The company, which offers online and telephone betting and also has more than 1,500 betting shops, raised £340 million, which it will use to pay debt and purchase more betting shops.
Eric More, a senior investment manager at Gartmore Investment Management, called the IPO "quite an achievement."
"It shows that with a decent business and sensible banking, there is still interest in new issues," he said.
GTECH Increasing Its Operational Cash Flow
GTECH Holdings Corp. (GTK) has set operational cash flow (OPS) records for its fourth quarter and annual report for the period ending Feb. 28, reported StockDiagnostics.com recently.
The company's OPS increased 5 percent for the first three months of the last year and 62 percent for the year as a whole. StockDiagnostics.com said that kind of OPS performance is rare and that GTECH is one of 69 companies out of 7,342 companies with record-level OPS.
OPS is calculated by dividing a company's cash flow from its operations by the total number of outstanding shares.
Wynn Resorts Plans IPO
Wynn Resorts Ltd., owned by Las Vegas Strip tycoon Steve Wynn, filed Monday for an initial public offering.
The company would like to raise more than $408 million in an IPO of common stock. Wynn Resorts is planning to build a new hotel-casino, called La Reve, that is estimated to cost $2.4 billion. It will be on the former site of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.
Steve Wynn had previously expressed distaste for public offerings after he sold Mirage Resorts, a public company, to MGM Grand Inc. in 2000.
Lottomatica May Be Interested in Acquisitions
Italian gaming and lottery group Lottomatica SpA may be looking to make acquisitions at home and in other countries, the company's CEO, Rosario Bifulco said.
"I ought to say that our company generates cash and our shareholders are interested in the sector," he said. "So if there are some opportunities in Italy or abroad, we will be ready to consider them."
Bifulco spoke on Tuesday after it was announced that Lottomatica won the rights to operate the game Totocalcio privately.
ukbetting Expresses Interest in Sports.com
Online gambling company ukbetting is said to be considering buying the assets of Sports.com, which entered into administration in May.
The company, which purchased Sporting Life and Sportal for only £3, is also said to be in the final stages of negotiations to buy the online and radio network TEAMtalk for more than £10 million.
The group administering Sports.com, Baker Tilly, said ukbetting was interested in Sports.com but that bidding on the company is still going on.
Maximum Shareholding Allowance Increased for Tabcorp
The Victorian state parliament on Wednesday ruled that the maximum shareholding allowable in Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. will be increased to 10 percent from 5 percent. The court also removed the company's 40 percent foreign ownership restriction.