The battle for bwin.party, parent company of partypoker, continues.
On Tuesday, bwin.party confirmed that it has received another acquisition proposal from 888 Holdings, though it has not revealed any of the proposal’s details. The brief announcement is as follows:
Further to its announcement on 27 August regarding a proposal from GVC Holdings PLC (‘GVC’), the Board of bwin.party (‘bwin.party’) confirms it has also now received a revised proposal from 888 Holdings plc (‘888’). This revised proposal is subject to a number of pre-conditions (which can be waived in whole or in part by 888).
The Board of bwin.party is evaluating this proposal, together with that received from GVC, and intends to consult with its key shareholders in the coming days before making a final determination as to which proposal is in the best interests of shareholders. A further announcement will be made in due course.
The Board’s unanimous recommendation of 888’s offer, which was announced on 17 July 2015, remains unchanged by this announcement. Documentation in respect of this offer was posted to shareholders on 28 August 2015.
This follows an announcement made by 888 from last Friday, August 28th, in which 888 basically just acknowledged that GVC Holdings, its competitor in the bidding for bwin.party, has clarified some issues regarding its own proposal to bwin.party and may make a formal offer:
The Board of 888 (the “Board”) notes the announcement made this morning by bwin.party concerning a potential offer for bwin.party. The Board continues to believe that the combination of the 888 and bwin.party businesses announced on 17 July 2015 (the “Proposed Transaction”) under the 888 management team would generate significant value for both sets of shareholders.
Following a detailed due diligence exercise, 888 made an offer comprising a significant cash component along with an approximate 49% ownership interest in the combined business. This offer was unanimously recommended by bwin.party. The Board continues to believe that its offer is of significantly greater intrinsic value than the proposal outlined by GVC Holdings PLC on 24 August 2015.
The Board notes that it remains the unanimously recommended bidder and continues to work towards the completion of the Proposed Transaction. 888 publishes its interim results for the 6 months to 30 June 2015 on 28 August 2015 and anticipates publishing a prospectus and shareholder circular in relation to the Proposed Transaction on the same day.
To summarize the timeline to this point, GVC Holdings announced on July 9th that it made a proposal to buy bwin.party for 110p per share. On July 17th, 888 announced its own, lower-priced proposal of 104.09p per share, but bwin.party’s Board of Directors recommended that one to shareholders, citing stronger corporate synergies, but it is also thought that bwin.party simply feels more comfortable with 888 than with GVC, especially when GVC was partnered with Amaya Gaming at the time. Amaya owns both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
On July 27th, GVC Holdings announced a new proposal in which it increased its bid to 122.5p per share, this time without Amaya’ help. The company has been in talks with bwin.party to iron out some of the terms of the proposal, but bwin.party’s Board has yet to change its recommendation to shareholders.