UK-listed online gambling operator GVC Holdings has shed the online payments operation it inherited from its acquisition of Bwin.party digital entertainment.
On Monday, GVC announced that it had reached a deal to dispose of its Kalixa Group payments processing business to Singapore investment firm Senjō Group Pte Ltd. The sale doesn’t include Kalixa’s ewallet subsididary Kalixa Pay Ltd, which GVC intends to close following the sale.
Senjō has agreed to pay GVC €29m cash, subject to a completion accounts adjustment, with total consideration for the deal capped at €35m. GVC will also collect a dividend equal to the free cash in Kalixa Group over and above €2.1m. GVC says it will apply any net gains from the sale to paying down its debts. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2017.
Kalixa, which Bwin.party spun off into a standalone entity in 2013, generated revenue of €22.7m and a net loss of €7m in fiscal 2015. GVC expects to record a “modest book loss on around €4m in 2017” but believes the disposal and closure will have “a neutral effect” on GVC’s earnings. Kalixa will continue to handle payments for GVC’s betting brands post-sale under an existing contract.
GVC had targeted Kalixa for disposal in January, following the September 2015 deal to acquire Bwin.party digital entertainment. GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said the sale would allow Kalixa “the opportunity to build a larger payment services business under new ownership which has payments as a core activity.”
In other GVC news, the company just announced the “biggest ever update” to its casino table game offering via the launch of a new ‘Pro’ series game titles for both desktop and mobile. Blackjack Pro and European Roulette Pro have been launched simultaneously in dot-com and regulated markets (where permitted) on GVC brands including Bwin, PartyCasino and PartyPoker.
GVC chief product officer Liron Snir said the new game titles were the result of the company having “brought in talent from across the industry to boost our in-house development capability.” Further Pro titles will be released in the coming months.
