888 Holdings will try to convince bwin.party to agree to a takeover following a rival £900m bid by GVC Holdings/Amaya Gaming.
888 Holdings confirmed that it made an offer for bwin.party on May 18 and this week’s Sunday Times reported that 888 will meet with bwin.party’s management to try to reach an eleventh-hour agreement. Although 888’s bid offer is not as high as GVC’s, 888 was said to be unlikely to come back with an improved cash offer but instead it would focus on the potential synergies between the two businesses.
bwin.party released a statement last week saying that its board had “determined to work with GVC so that they can finalize their offer over the coming days.”
GVC issued its own statement saying that the company had put forward a very compelling offer and are pleased to have received the support of the bwin.party board.
GVC Chief Executive Kenny Alexander, told City A.M that the company was “just days away” from completing the deal and has confirmed that part of the cost savings would come from job losses – removing some of those who would be doing duplicate roles in the expanded company.
If GVC’s bid is successful, it is expected to retain bwin’s sports betting company while Amaya would take over the poker and casino business.
GVC’s cash-and-shares offer values bwin.party at 110p per share, a roughly 10p premium on Wednesday’s closing price. More than half (55%) of the roughly £900m total deal price would be in new GVC shares.
bwin.party is expected to unveil its decision this week.
