UK Poker Firm Set For Listing

Fast-growing online betting group PartyGaming today announced plans for a stock market flotation.

The world’s biggest poker online firm said it planned to list 23% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange through an offer to institutional shareholders to be completed by the end of this month.

Reports have put the potential flotation value of the whole firm at up to $10bn (€8.2bn). It is the second major listing announced for the London market this week, following satellite operator Inmarsat’s confirmation of a £1bn (€1.5bn) flotation move for three weeks’ time.

PartyGaming, whose Party Poker online poker gaming room was set up in 2001 and has more than one million users, said the offer would allow it to capitalise on growth in online gaming.

The company, formerly known as iGlobalMedia, owns and runs the world’s biggest online poker brand, PartyPoker, as well as other gaming brands including Starluck Casino and PartyBingo.

It has more than 1,000 staff, including 126 people at its head office in Gibraltar, 57 marketing staff in the UK and 925 customer support and software development workers in India.

Pre-tax profits in the year to December 31 came in at $371.7m (€303.1m) against $89.2m (€72.7m) last time.

Chief executive Richard Segal said the results were "further evidence of the growth in the online gaming market and specifically online poker".

Mr Segal said the company intended to drive organic growth by further exploiting core markets, building the Party brand in new geographic areas, creating new games and using new distribution channels such as mobile phones and other wireless applications.

"A listing will provide us with a solid foundation to achieve these goals," he said.

"PartyGaming is a highly profitable and cash-generative business. Our focus will be to deliver attractive returns for our shareholders through a combination of the growth of the business and through the payment of dividends."

The company said in January that it had appointed banks to do a strategic review of its business, with reports suggesting it was considering a flotation valuing the business at between £3bn (€4.4bn) and £5bn (€7.4bn).