GVC weighs up Foxy Bingo sale
GVC to entertain offers for bwin.party's Cashcade business within 12 months of takeover with host of firms on standby
GVC Holdings will begin a break-up of bwin.party through the disposal of bingo business Cashcade and its Foxy Bingo brand, with a raft of interested parties already lining-up bids, eGaming Review understands.
It is thought a sale process will kick-off within 12 months of GVC’s £1.1bn acquisition of bwin.party, which is expected to be completed in December or January, with Cashcade estimated to be worth in the region of £65m.
According to sources, a host of firms are interested in acquiring Cashcade, which last year posted revenues of 51.9m and clean EBITDA of 11.8m, and GVC is apparently keen to raise cash to pay down a 400m loan taken to buy bwin.party.
888, which owns the Dragonfish platform the Cashcade brands sit on, is one name in the frame and the operator would have acquired the business had it fought off rival bidder GVC in the race to buy bwin.party.
Other names thought to be interested include Gaming Realms – whose owners sold Cashcade to bwin.party in a £95m deal back in 2009 – Intertain, the Rank Group and Stride Gaming.
GVC chief executive Kenneth Alexander last month told eGR the firm was focused on growing bwin.party in its entirety but would listen to offers for certain parts of the business.
“I will have free reign to run the business as I see fit and the plan is to run all the individual parts of the business we acquire and grow them and develop them and improve them as much as we possibly can to create value,” Alexander said at the time.
“However, if people are interested in some of the individual assets of the large group then I’m happy to have a discussion but the number one priority is to run all the parts of the business and grow them and development them,” he added.
And bwin.party chief executive Norbert Teufelberger last week told eGR the future of Cashcade was still up in the air but a decision would be made within a year.
“With bingo we have a very strong brand in the UK which is performing very well,” Teufelberger said. “It’s too early to say what is going to happen [with Cashcade].
“It is obviously going to be a decision of the new incoming board but for the time being I think everything will be looked at and a decision will be made within 12 months of the deal closing,” he added.
A spokesperson for GVC this morning denied the firm was ready to sell Cashcade or any other part of the bwin.party business.
“GVC has no pre-laid plans to sell or break-up the bwin business,” the spokesperson told eGR. “At this stage we are not commenting on individual parts of the business.”
A potential sale of bwin.party’s US and poker businesses to Amaya Gaming has also been rumoured but refuted by GVC.