Sportingbet shares up as it back bid by William Hill
THE odds on a takeover of online sports betting provider Sportingbet shortened yesterday as it said it would back a sweetened £407million joint offer from William Hill and European gaming group GVC.
Bookie Hill, led by chief executive Ralph Topping, and Aim-listed GVC have agreed to raise their cash and shares bid to value Sportingbet stock at 61.1p after a previous 52½p approach was rejected as “significantly undervaluing the business and its future prospects”.
Sportingbet said that, subject to terms and conditions, its board were likely unanimously recommend to its shareholders an offer which would value it at about £530million.
Shares in Sportingbet rose ½p to 53½p while those of Hill, which sponsors the winter festival at Kempton Park, right, rose 16p to 342p.
Despite support for the potential deal from Sportingbet, which owns Paradise Poker and offers sports betting and casino games, broker Numis still expects a counter-bidder to emerge with a higher offer.
Sportingbet is thought to have been sounding out potential white-knight bidders including Malaysian gaming giant Genting.
Shares in Sportingbet rose ½p to 53½p
Numis leisure analyst Ivor Jones said: “The conditional offer from Hill and GVC gives other potential bidders something to aim off.
“It does not appear that Sportingbet has agreed to negotiate exclusively with Hill.
“We continue to believe that a bidder capable of extracting synergies from Sportingbet’s businesses would be able to pay 90p-a-share. We believe Sportingbet is now in play and likely to be seeking such a bidder.”