GVC back at the table with £1bn move for bwin.party

GVC Holdings this morning confirmed it has made a fully-funded proposal in excess of £1bn to acquire bwin.party as the firm looks to snatch the beleaguered away from rival bidder 888.

The Sportingbet owner has teamed up with Gala Coral shareholder Cerberus Capital Management to put together a revised 125.5p per share offer, which is an increase on original its bid of 110p, although the 25p per share cash element remains unchanged.

The revised figure is significantly higher than the £898m, or 104.p per share, deal accepted by bwin.party from 888 last month, a price that was already lower than GVC’s original proposal of £906m.

Today’s 125.5p per share proposal is also larger than the 122.5p valuation reported last week, however the increase is due to a recent rise in the valuation of GVC shares.

GVC said it was working closely with bwin.party and its advisors in order to “progress the remaining open aspects of its proposal” so that the bwin.party board and make a “full evaluation” of its bid.

“GVC anticipates that this work should conclude within the next five to ten business days,” GVC said in a statement.

Bwin.party confirmed it had received a revised offer from GVC and said it was “working closely” with the operator and its advisors “with a view to progressing certain aspects” of its proposal to put before the board.

However, bwin.party said there “can be no certainty that an offer will be made by GVC” and that the board’s “unanimous recommendation” for accepting 888’s bid was unchanged.

Bwin.party’s share price was up 0.51% at the time of writing to 117.7p while GVC Holding’s share price was up 0.46% to 437p.