New financing allows GVC to improve BwinParty proposal

ne gaming group GVC Holdings has increased its proposal to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of operator BwinParty to 125.5p a share, after securing extra funding.

The sum of the proposal, which values BwinParty at an approximate £1.03bn, is an increase from the previously confirmed total of 122.5p a share that was confirmed last month.

That followed the confirmation of a proposal of 110p a share, and GVC first announced it had made a proposal to acquire BwinParty in May.

It was announced prior to GVC’s announcement of the 122.5p a share proposal last month that the boards of BwinParty and fellow operator 888 Holdings had reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended offer for BwinParty of 104.09p a share.

GVC said today (Friday): “GVC is working closely with BwinParty and its advisers with a view to progressing the remaining open aspects of its proposal to enable the BwinParty board to make a full evaluation of the proposal. GVC anticipates that this work should conclude within the next five to 10 business days.”

GVC reiterated that there can be no certainty that an official offer for BwinParty will be made.

BwinParty confirmed it is working closely with GVC and its advisers and said that “BwinParty's directors' unanimous recommendation of 888 Holdings plc's offer is unchanged” by GVC’s latest announcement.

An announcement from GVC in May revealed it had made a proposal to acquire BwinParty, and it was confirmed the proposal would be jointly financed by provider Amaya Gaming.

A PR agency speaking on behalf of GVC told Gambling Insider that the latest announcement is not referring to a new proposal and that the current proposal has developed after GVC secured extra fundraising to finance a potential deal, but was not authorised to identify any providers of the extra funding.

It was also confirmed that Amaya is no longer part of GVC’s plans to acquire BwinParty.

The current proposal would be financed by a combination of the issuance of new GVC shares to BwinParty shareholders and a €400m senior secured loan provided by affiliates of private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management.