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02 August 2005
£800m At Stake On 888.com
Float
The
upcoming London flotation of the gambling operator behind
888.com
is set to make about £800m for its four founders and
the chief executive.
Gibraltar-based Cassava is
expected to have a value of about
$1.5bn(£848m).
Israeli brothers Avis and
Aaron Shaked share a stake of about 70%, and Shay and Ron
Ben-Yitzhak control around 20% via a family
trust.
Its chief executive John
Anderson, head of UK property group Burford, could make up
to £35 million from what is thought to be a stake of up
to 4%.
HSBC, Cassava's lead
underwriter, is thought to be in line for at least £15
million in fees depending on the amount of new money raised
and the level of success fee it has agreed.
The fees bonanza echoes
the rewards triggered from June's £4.64bn
flotation
of Party Gaming,
the Gibraltar firm behind the PartyPoker website.
Its four founders cashed
in £955m of shares on the flotation but retain stakes
worth billions of pounds more.
Cassava's website, like
Party-Gaming's, draws punters from the US where the
illegality of internet gambling in many states is a
deterrent for banks with large US operations getting
involved in gambling flotations.
The UK
online casinos
sector is booming. UK online gambling group Sportingbet
today said profits in the final quarter of the year were
better than it expected, fuelled by growth in customer
numbers and solid sports, casino and gaming
margins.
Sportingbet said it made
good progress across all parts of its business during the
seasonally quiet final quarter of its financial year, and it
expects operating profit before goodwill amortisation for
the year ended July 31 will be at least
£60.5m.
Sportingbet also said it
had bought Antigua-based ISC Entertainment, the owner of
certain U.S. sports betting and gaming marketing operations,
including mysportsbook.com, for an initial outlay of $33
million, and a possible further $6 million.
Play
Online At 888.com - Click Here
Related pages:
Sportingbet
Profits Exceed Expectations
Also see:
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