{"id":30089,"date":"2015-07-27T15:34:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T22:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=30089"},"modified":"2015-07-27T16:01:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T23:01:00","slug":"gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/","title":{"rendered":"GVC Moves All-in for $1.5 Billion in Battle for Bwin.Party"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kenneth
GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said he was \u201cvery surprised\u201d when the bwin.party board chose to reject his Amaya-backed proposal. Now the company is back with a new offering. (Image: Tony Larkin\/sbcnews.co.uk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GVC Holdings has pushed forward a shock bid of almost \u00a31 billion ($1.55 billion) for bwin.party, this time without the financial assistance of Amaya Inc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, GVC<\/a>, which has a market cap just one-third of bwin\u2019s, has nailed down funding for the proposed takeover through a $443 million secured loan from US private equity group Cerberus Capital.<\/p>\n

With the move,\u00a0GVC trounces a bid from 888 Holdings that was thought to be in the bag by almost $100 million, which begs the question: will 888 bite back?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that the bwin.party board likes the idea of an 888 takeover. With various synergies between the two companies, particularly in regulated markets, that hookup would likely facilitate integration and create cost savings further down the line.<\/p>\n

Amaya Out of the Picture<\/h2>\n

Bwin.party ultimately rejected the initial GVC\/Amaya bid of \u00a3908 million ($1.41 billion), which proposed dividing the sports book and the poker operation between these two suitors, because it felt it was the riskier proposal.<\/p>\n

The GVC\/Amaya offer was \u00a310 million more than 888\u2019s, but this was dismissed as no more than a \u201cmodest incremental premium\u201d by the bwin board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised when [bwin] made that decision,\u201d Kenneth Alexander, chief executive of GVC, told London\u2019s Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0on Monday. \u201c888 were there and we were not quite there, but we were progressing well. We would have got there but they took the decision they took.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rumors began circulating last week that GVC was looking for an investor to finance a solo bid, truncating Amaya, thus simplifying the equation.<\/p>\n

This new dynamic, along with the significantly sweetened pot, could well be tempting to bwin\u2019s shareholders.<\/p>\n

High Stakes<\/h2>\n

Bwin, which had already recommended the 888 bid to shareholders and appeared to be moving forward with the deal, had clearly caught wind of the rumors when it announced over the weekend that it was still open to offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board has recommended an offer from 888 and we are working towards getting that done,\u201d a Bwin spokesman said. \u201cShould GVC or anyone else put forward an attractive, fully financed and deliverable offer then of course the board will consider it against 888\u2019s current offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bwin itself, however, may have been surprised by the scale of the new bid, since many analysts speculated that GVC would struggle to raise the capital necessary to trump 888. But now, as the battle for bwin escalates into a raising war, insiders are fully expecting a counter-proposal.<\/p>\n

And the stakes could be high for 888. The company only recently survived a takeover bid from Ladbrokes, and, as a period of consolidation becomes a necessity for the gambling industry in the UK and Europe, failure here could result in a reinstatement of those, or similar, negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GVC Holdings has pushed forward a shock bid of almost \u00a31 billion ($1.55 billion) for bwin.party, this time without the financial assistance of Amaya Inc. Instead, GVC, which has a market cap just one-third of bwin\u2019s, has nailed down funding for the proposed takeover through a $443 million secured loan from US private equity group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":30101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGVC Moves All-in for $1.5 Billion in Battle for Bwin.Party - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GVC teams up with Cerberus Capital and sticks it to 888 in bwin.party bidding war.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GVC Moves All-in for $1.5 Billion in Battle for Bwin.Party - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GVC teams up with Cerberus Capital and sticks it to 888 in bwin.party bidding war.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-27T22:34:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-27T23:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Kenneth-Alexander-GVC-Holdings-CEO-bwin.party-bid.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"567\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/\",\"name\":\"GVC Moves All-in for $1.5 Billion in Battle for Bwin.Party - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Kenneth-Alexander-GVC-Holdings-CEO-bwin.party-bid.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-27T22:34:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-27T23:01:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"GVC teams up with Cerberus Capital and sticks it to 888 in bwin.party bidding war.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gvc-all-in-bid-for-bwin-party-at-1-5b\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Kenneth-Alexander-GVC-Holdings-CEO-bwin.party-bid.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Kenneth-Alexander-GVC-Holdings-CEO-bwin.party-bid.jpg\",\"width\":850,\"height\":567,\"caption\":\"GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said he was \u201cvery surprised\u201d when the bwin.party board chose to reject his Amaya-backed proposal. 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