VIP Becomes Publicly-Listed Through Reverse Takeover
Shares in Curacao-based online gaming firm VIP Management Services N.V. will become available to the public through a US$44.5 million reverse takeover deal with Leisure & Gaming Plc (LNG.L), a shell company that listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 with an aim to acquire an online gambling company. Leisure & Gaming will pay an initial $35.5 million for VIP's assets and will later pay the remaining $9 million if the company meets its profit targets for the next two years. VIP's shareholders will retain a majority stake in Leisure & Gaming, and the board will be changed to reflect the majority. Alistair Assheton, CEO of VIP, and Peter Blacker, finance director of VIP, will both join the board of Leisure & Gaming, and Assheton will also assume the role of CEO of the company. Leisure & Gaming's current CEO Benjamin Shaw—who was also instrumental in deal's that involved Betcorp's acquisition of BETWWTS in the late 90's and Talarius' takeover of RAL last month—will become an executive director. VIP reported operating profit of $6 million for the year 2004 off of turnover of $330.1 million and gross win of 19.1 million. In the first quarter of 2005 new customer sign ups rose 51 percent to 5,565 compared to the same period in 2004. Leisure and gaming also plans to raise $10 million through a placement of new shares.
Tradal Float Within Two Weeks
News of the anticipated float of Tradal Ltd. on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange made headlines in many mainstream Israeli newspapers last week. The marketing company's CEO and largest shareholder is an Israeli named Noam Lenir, and the advisers to the float, Numis Securities, have granted Israeli investment house Tamir Fishman exclusive rights to the Israeli share distribution. Tamir Fishman expects to issue share packages of up to $50 million. Tradal specializes in marketing online gambling sites through new media buying, new media planning, search engine positioning, creative new media, traffic analysis and tracking, new media control systems and data mining. The company also performs affiliate networking and services for PeachCasino.com, StarluckCasino.com, AceClub.com, 888.com (Casino On Net), and its own site, EmpirePoker.com. The company recently appointed Lord Leonard Steinberg, the founder and chairman of Stanley Leisure Organisation Plc (SLY.L), as a non-executive chairman. The company's listing on the AIM should occur within the first two weeks of June and could value the company at around US$1 billion.
BetonSports Targets Asian Market Through Acquisition
Costa Rica-based BetonSports.com Plc (BSS.L) has acquired the Easybets.com business for an initial US$15 million in cash and shares. Easybets reportedly has about 100,000 customers, most of whom reside in Asia. Seventy percent of the Easybets' customers are from China, and 95 percent of customers utilize the company's services over the Internet. BetonSports also recently revealed its annual financial report. The company's pretax profit for the year ended Feb. 6 had fallen to $13.3 million from $27 million on turnover that had fallen to $1.1 billion from $1.3 billion, but company officials say the Easybets purchase should increase earnings immediately. BetonSports also appointed Chris Galloway, a specialist small cap adviser, to its board.
Phumelela Reaps Fruits of Racing UK Deal
Phumelela Gaming and Leisure-- a South African company that (through a joint venture with Gold Circle) has an exclusive international agreement with Racing UK to exploit the media rights of Racing UK's 31 race track partners to clients in foreign lands— says it now receives more than 3,000 users per month to its Internet betting site that launched in September. The company shares betting commissions on UK horseracing with Racing UK but receives all proceeds from bets on South African racing. The company expects its international agreement with Racing UK to become profitable in the next financial year.
AngelCiti To Award Shares of Midas as Dividend
AngeliCiti Entertainment (AGCI.OB) Inc, a licensor of online gambling software, will reward its shareholders by giving them shares in Midas Entertainment Inc (MDAS.PK) that are held by the company. Midas Entertainment is an online poker software licensor that spun off from AngelCiti last July. AngelCiti will deliver as a dividend one share of Midas Entertainment for every seven shares of AngelCiti owned by a shareholder. AngelCiti currently possesses more than 3.1 million shares of Midas Entertainment and expects to retain ownership of more than 2.1 million shares after the dividend payout.