GVC confirms further offer for bwin.party

Online gambling group GVC has made another bid for ownership of Bwin.Party, giving some credibility to the old saw that it’s not over until the fat lady sings.

The company has confirmed media reports that it is partnering with New York hedge fund Cerberus in a new billion-pound bid to wrest Bwin.Party from the current agreement with 888 Holdings.

The 888 offer was valued at around GBP 898 million .

Some reports suggest that Amaya Gaming is still interested in the GVC initiative, although GVC does not mention the company in its latest investor notification.

Amaya has responded to enquiries by saying that it was unable to comment on speculation, but its role in the bid alongside GVC and Cerberus is to be confirmed this week.

The GVC investor notification reminds readers that the 888 offer is currently 104.09p per Bwin.Party share before going on to advise that the new offer for the “entire issued and to be issued share capital” it has made would mean that Bwin.Party shareholders would receive 122.5p, consisting of up to 25p in cash (subject to confirmation by bwin.party that the cash position of bwin.party is as GVC expects based on information received to date), and the balance of the value in new GVC ordinary shares.

GVC says it will finance the deal via a combination of the issue of new GVC shares to Bwin.Party shareholders, and a Euro 400 million senior secured loan provided by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.

In addition, GVC intends to raise around GBP 150 million through an equity placing of new GVC shares for cash in order to fund restructuring costs, the refinancing of existing Bwin.Party debt and for additional working capital purposes.

If a transaction were to be completed, the GVC Board believes that cost reductions exceeding Euro 135 million per annum would be achieved across the enlarged group by the end of 2017.

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