888 sets price for floatation |
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Thu, 15 Sep 2005 20:05
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LONDON - Online casino company 888 Holdings PLC has valued its shares between 162-212 pence per share for the planned floatation of the firm on the London market. The Gibraltar-based group is valued between £546.1 million and £714.6 million in the markets at this price range.
Online gaming companies have raked in huge profits and the next step is naturally a float on the market. 888 rivals PartyGaming and EmpireOnline have already been floated successfully on the markets. However, PartyGaming had announced last week that the market was heading for a slowdown. This announcement hit the company's shares by more than 30 percent. Over the weekend, 888 had to issue statements denying that PartyGaming’s dire predictions had caused it to postpone its planned floatation. The company also denied that it had been forced to cut its prices due to this.
888, which operates the Casino-on-Net.com and ReefClubCasino.com sites said that its net revenues surged by 14.2 percent in the first half of the year thanks to a whopping 226 percent growth in the online gaming market. 888 chief executive John Anderson stressed that the company had a healthy trading in the year so far, "We have traded profitably over many years and I am delighted to report continued strong current trading... Growth in the casino segment is very encouraging, given that historically trading results for the casino in July and August are the weakest for the year," he said.
However, PartyGaming’s warnings could result in 888 earning less than what was forecast. At the time of the initial announcement of a float, analysts had expected a figure of £700 million. The company also assured would-be investors that their prospects were not hit by PartyGaming's warnings since they had less business in the volatile US markets and also were not solely poker-centric. The company said that it would announce the final float price by September 29.
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