bwin.party confirms Ongame sale plans
Announcement made as part of today's AGM statement, which also details share buyback and dividend policy.
More than four months after first suggesting the Ongame poker network was “likely” to be sold, bwin.party has confirmed that a formal process to sell the B2B network has begun.
The announcement was made as part of a statement ahead of today’s Annual General Meeting, the first held by the combined entity since the merger between Bwin and PartyGaming was completed in March.
It was reiterated in the statement that “One area of our stated strategy was to recycle surplus assets,” and the London-listed company revealed that “We expect that any sale will be completed by the end of the year.”
And a spokesman for the company confirmed to eGaming Review that “”We have received interest from several parties”
No licensee on the network has yet responded to bwin.party’s announcement, although Betfair’s outgoing CEO David Yu passed opinion on Ongame just yesterday.
He told eGaming Review: “We’ll continue to monitor the situation with Ongame and we’re well protected with our contract. Poker is one of our portfolio products and we know our customers enjoy it so we’ll continue to offer it.”
Bwin.party’s AGM statement also contains details of a planned share buyback, which will see the company follow the examples of Playtech and Betfair in making such a move, as well as news of a progressive dividend policy containing a 30m dividend payout for the year ending 31 December 2011.
Current trading is described as “Broadly in-line with management’s expectations,” however analyst James Hollins, of Evolution Securities, said in a note this morning that “The stock remains a Neutral ahead of potentially disruptive German legislation near-term.”
Meanwhile Simon French, of Panmure Gordon, reiterated his firm’s ‘buy’ recommendation, explaining “[We] expect the shares to respond well to the dividend and share buyback news.”
German sports betting proposals in April had seen the share price of bwin.party drop 16% in one day, and a decision on the country’s State Gambling Treaty is expected in October.
However yesterday – following the suspension of Full Tilt Poker’s licences in Alderney – the share price ended the day at 148.2p, an increase of more than 10% day-on-day.