The Empire Auction Begins
The Financial Times reports that PartyGaming is believed to have appointed Deutsche Bank to advise on the potential purchase of Empire Online, a marketing firm that drives an estimated 9 percent of the entire global online poker market to PartyGaming's PartyPoker.com. Empire received a £700 million offer on Sept. 2 from online gaming company Sportingbet, and if Sportingbet were to acquire Empire, it might be able to redirect the players to its own site, ParadisePoker.com. Among Deutsche Bank's accomplishments in the I-gaming sector is running William Hill's initial public offering two years ago and the representation of Gala's shareholders when they recently sold a 30 percent stake in the company to private equity firm Permira. FT reports that Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the bank that handled PartyGaming' IPO, is now advising Sportingbet, but will continue to act as a joint-advisor to PartyGaming. Sportingbet has also recruited the assistance of Investec.
Another Floater
Gaming operator Codere, which does business in Europe and Latin America and is considered possibly the largest Spanish group of gaming companies, has enlisted the aid of Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley in preparation for a potential float on a major market before the end of 2005. The company is reportedly considering a public sale of 30 to 35 percent of its capital.
Reports
Normalized annual profit for recently floated Tattersall's in Australia was AU$141.8 million, which takes into account the 11 months the company operated as a trust and the one month it operated as a public company. The results are in line with forecasts, and the company is now projecting $127.5 million in net profit for the year 2006.
Betbull - The European Betting Exchange Plc has released its financial results for the second quarter of 2005 ended June 30, 2005. The company finally launched its German betting exchange and began promoting the service at German race tracks during the period. Still in a startup phase, Betbull reported a quarter-by-quarter increase in income from operations to 21,000 euro. The company also recently announced that it will acquire 100 percent of the German retail bookmaker the Leip Group for 10 million euro and 700,000 ordinary shares of Betbull. The deal will become effective on Oct. 1, and Betbull says it is an important step in the company's establishing itself as a leading retail betting provider in continental Europe. The Leip Group operates 80 retail shops under the Wettenleip brand. It reported 1 million euro in profit off of 51.7 million euro in turnover and 8.1 million euro in revenue in 2004.
Betbull - Consolidated Balance Sheet
William Hill Plc (WMH.L) has announced plans to return between £200 million and £300 million to shareholders over the next 18 months through share buybacks. The company had announced in the first quarter of 2005 that it intended to buy back £450 million worth of shares but scrapped that plan so that it could become Britain's largest bookmaker by acquiring the sports betting branch of Stanley Leisure. Punters fared well in the first half of 2005, and William Hill has consequently reported profit before tax and exceptional items of £109.2 million--9 percent lower than last year's first half but still in line with forecasts. A 151 percent increase in poker revenues helped raise winnings via interactive channels by 17 percent.
William Hill Plc - Interim Report
Gaming VC Holdings S.A. (GVCq.L), which floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2004, has released its maiden interim results for the first half of 2005. The company reports 880 million euro in handle, 21.3 million in net revenue and 11.1 million euro in pre-tax profit during the six-month period. It had issued a warning in June that it was likely to obtain less than 21 million euro in half-year revenue because it had not marketed its gaming operations sufficiently. Gaming VC has great expectations for the next six months after having launched its first marketing campaign in Germany and releasing a poker product as well as Spanish language products. The company will deliver an interim dividend of 21p per share.
Gaming VC Holdings - Interim Report
ukbetting (UKB.L)--the online betting company that owns sports content sites Sportal, Sporting Life, Planet Rugby and Football 365--has reported a rise in turnover from £43.1 million to £55.5 million and a narrowing in pre-tax losses from £1.7 million to £330,000. In the wake of PartyGaming's 33 percent decrease in share value, ukbetting's chairman, Peter Dubens, contrasted his company to PartyGaming by stating, "The cost of acquiring customers in this industry has risen from $50 per customer in 2002 to $300 this year. But it costs us $20 per customer because the bulk of them come through our network." He added that ukbetting's punters tend to be more loyal because they come back for the video footage, news, analysis and other content.
Ukbetting Plc - Interim Report