GVC lines up £1bn offer to acquire bwin.party

GVC Holdings is lining up an offer of approximately £1bn in a bid to overtake rival 888 in the race to acquire bwin.party.

The Sportingbet owner this morning confirmed it has teamed up with private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management to work on an improve offer for bwin.party, upping its original offer of 110p per share to 122.5p, consisting of 25p in cash and the rest in stock.

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

Last week eGaming Review revealed GVC would likely table an improved offer, with one source claiming the company would “not rule anything out” in the race to beat 888 to complete the acquisition.

The improved offer would be financed through a combination of new GVC shares issued to bwin.party shareholders and a €400m (£284.6m) provided by affiliates of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management which is also a part-owner of Gala Coral.

GVC would also raise £150m through an equity placement of new GVC shares which would be used for restructuring costs and to finance bwin.party’s current debt.

The move appears to end Amaya’s involvement in any offer to buy bwin.party, despite GVC chief executive Kenny Alexander (pictured) previously saying it would be a “significant partner” in the deal

Bwin.party said in a statement that there “can be no certainty that an offer will be made by GVC” and would make further announcements as and when appropriate.

Bwin.party’s share price on the London Stock Exchange was 109.6p at the time of writing.