Dividend for Intralot Shareholders
Greek gaming company Intralot SA announced last week that it would give its shareholders an interim dividend of 0.35 euro for the year 2003. The total amount of the dividend to be distributed is 13,464,561 euro.
Phantom Fiber Merger Completed
Shareholders at Pivotal Self-Service Technologies Inc.'s (OTC-PVSS) annual meeting last week ratified the acquisition of Phantom Fiber Corporation and approved the election of Jeffrey Halloran, Gordon Fowler, Graham Simmonds and Stephen Gesner as company directors. At the close of the acquisition on July 2, Pivotal Self-Service changed its name to Phantom Fiber Corporation.
Profit Warning for IASbet
International All Sports Limited (ASX:IAS) last week delivered a full-year profit warning, revising its profit expectation for the year ended June 30, 2004 and advising shareholders that the company is likely to report a loss of $4 million over the period. Remedial actions had been in place to alleviate a $3 million loss incurred over the first half of the year, but some unfavorable betting results in May prevented the company from recovering the losses. The loss in May, however, was reportedly an atypical trading loss, and trading in the second half of the year (excluding May) has shown much improvement. The company expects this trend to continue into the first half of next year and predicts that it will be profitable next period.
GTECH Adjusts Earnings Guidance
Global lottery technology company GTECH Holdings Corp. (GTK) has adjusted its earnings guidance to address a civil suit and criminal proceedings against one of its subsidiaries in Brazil. A Brazilian judge has granted a procedural injunction ordering 30 percent of payments due to GTECH Brazil from Caixa Economica Federal to be withheld. As a result, the company expects to see service revenues reduced by about $20 million for the remainder of the fiscal year ending Feb. 26, 2005. GTECH therefore expects earnings per share for fiscal 2005 to be between $2.85 and $2.95 on a fully diluted basis, rather than between $3.05 and $3.15 as previously expected.
Trading Update from Gaming Corp
Gaming Corporation Plc (GMC.L), which owns the online casino portal at www.casino.co.uk, last week issued a trading update to address its acquisition of Eyeconomy Ltd, an online marketing and advertising business, in May. The company says both its portal and casino business have so far performed in line with expectations, with the casino producing turnover in excess of £1 million per month. As advised by Eyeconomy, Gaming Corporation has changed its pricing structure for the portal to a cost-per-click model, which has already resulted in an improvement in net revenues. The company also said last week that traffic to the casino.co.uk portal has more than doubled in the last few months, now generating over 300,000 unique visitors. Since that announcement last week Gaming Corporation's shares have risen by 20 percent to 2.25 pence, giving the company a market value of £3.71 million.
Latest on Tabcorp Takeover of Tab Ltd.
Tabcorp Holdings Ltd. (TAH.AX) this week replaced Tab Ltd.'s (TAB.AX) board and management with its own personnel as part of its massive takeover of the New South Wales-based company. Victoria-based Tabcorp has acquired 57.6 percent of Tab Ltd. but needs 90 percent by July 21. Assuming it can acquire the 90 percent, Tabcorp's offer values Tab shares at $4.96 each. If it successfully secures 90 percent of TAB, its cash offer component will increase by $0.10 per share to $2.10 in cash plus between 0.2 and 0.22 shares of Tabcorp for each share of Tab.