The bidding war for bwin.party seems to be never-ending. First, 888 Holdings and GVC Holdings with Amaya Gaming both presented a proposal for the acquisition of the company. 888 was accepted and the industry figured that they would be the new owners of the company. However, this was not the case. GVC Holdings then sent in a new bid hoping to be chosen, minus Amaya Gaming. Now even more information has surfaced including monetary issues with 888 and a newer bid by GVC.
Reports have surfaced that GVC Holding is going to offer bwin.party a big of $1.72 billion to take over the company. The company has a plan to increase their offering to the higher amount which includes a bwin.party share of 130p.
The board was supposed to meet and discuss whether they will accept a bid by GVC or if they will be sticking with 888 Holdings. They also have the option to confirm to accept the bid from July by GVC which is $1.4 billion.
It is believed 888 Holdings has been given a time frame in which to present an additional offer to counter the one by GVC. This would be looked at if the board decides to choose either of the 2 new bids by GVC.
To be able to compete, 888 would have to earn back the approval of Barclays and JP Morgan, the two financial groups who decided to place the syndication of an equivalent covenant-lite leveraged loan worth $650 million which would have been used to finance the offer by the company. This has now been put on hold.
In speaking with PokerNews, a representative of Barclay’s told the news source, that the two offers from GVC and the way the company choose to do away with the Amaya Gaming side of the deal to be able to advance negotiations has been a game changer for the process of acquisition. The representative went on to state that the situation is no longer clear like it was on the 17th of July when the 888 deal was accepted.
The rep stated that if the situation remains unclear as the current state at the present, the company would find it very hard to receive a commitment from current investors of the present deal. Barclay feels they need more clarity to be able to proceed.
Itai Frieberger is the Chief Operating Officer for 888 Holdings and he has commented on the deal as well stating that the company still is optimistic that they are going to be the one chosen by bwin.party. Frieberger stated that he feels as though 888 and bwin.party could be the most successful merger in the industry. This would not be soley based on the cutting costs by creating an effective operator but also due to creating an operator offering four verticals power with the same platform of marketing.
Back when the deal was set, both bwin.party and 888 stated in a joint press release that the merging of the two gaming groups would build a leading operator in the iGaming industry. It was estimated that pro forma plus annual revenues would be set at over $1 billion.
So for now, the saga continues. Will it be 888 Holdings or will it be GVC? There is no clear cut answer as both companies are offering different deals to bwin.party. The online gambling company seems to be set on making the right choice for their shareholders and customers. Over the next few weeks or even days, it would not be surprising to see even more developments in this case.