20th Aug 2015 05:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - GVC Holdings PLC is prepared to hike its offer for Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment PLC to at least 130 pence per share, valuing Bwin.Party at around GBP1.1 billion, in a final push to try and gain control of the online gambling company, The Times reports.
The paper said GVC is ready to raise its bid for Bwin.Party for the third time in order to trump 888 Holdings PLC, which had a bid for Bwin.Party accepted last month. Bwin.Party had rejected GVC's rival, higher offer due to the execution risks that would be involved in GVC's bid, given it is a much smaller company than Bwin.Party is.
The Bwin.Party board is set to meet on Friday to decide on whether to side with GVC. Even if it does decide to go with GVC's offer, it would likely give 888 a grace period in which to make an improved offer.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/leisure/article4532561.ece
Earlier this month, GVC made a bid under which Bwin.Party shareholders would get 25 pence in cash and 0.231 new GVC ordinary shares, valuing Bwin.Party at 125.5 pence per share. That was an increase from the 122.5 pence per share bid GVC outlined in July and an original offer of 100 pence.
888's agreed bid was for 104.09p in cash and shares.
Bwin.Party shares ended Wednesday at 113.50p.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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