Last week’s bid was an improvement on an earlier offer put forward by GVC in partnership with Amaya Gaming – a bid that valued bwin.party at approximately £900 million and had been reportedly regarded as the leading offer in the race to acquire the online operator. Last week Ladbrokes and Gala Coral agreed a $3.4 billion all-share merger.
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Bwin and GVC said on Friday the companies were working to evaluate GVC’s latest offer.
888 declined to comment on whether it planned to raise its offer, though analysts said they widely expected it to do so.
Still, Bwin had accepted online casino and poker firm 888’s offer, deeming GVC’s offer too complex and with less attractive growth prospects.
“We would be surprised if 888 does not come back with a counter-offer of its own”. The increase, however, is somewhat distant from what the Chief Executive Officer of hedge fund Springowl Asset Management LLC, Jason Ader told Bloomberg he would consider as an appropriate sum to convince the bwin.party Group to choose GVC over 888. Since, then GVC’s shares have risen about 1.5 percent. This price means bwin.party would be worth GBP 1.03 billion (EUR 1.47 billion).
GVC has raised its offer from 122.5 pence per share to 125.5 pence per share. The company had already bid more than rival 888 who were the latest to see a green light, but bwin.party board spokesmen indicated in endorsing the 888 offer that certain synergies and stability were built-in and that accepting the 888 offer held less risk and more certainty for investors.
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GVC Holdings (LON:GVC) continues in its pursuit of a deal for Bwin.
