People news 23/08/12
A round up of industry moves from the last week (17 August to 23 August 2012).
Playtech’s Sagi to float energy company
Software provider’s majority shareholder has a 40% stake in Genesis Energy.
Playtech founder Teddy Sagi is preparing to float a second company on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) with an initial public offering for Genesis Energy planned for the third quarter of this year.
Sagi holds a 40% stake in the gas exploration firm and hopes to raise between US$90m and $120m through the IPO. The company told The Financial Times that the procedures for the listing are “at a preliminary stage.”
Genesis owns a number of oil and natural gas exploration licences in Israel and surrounding offshore territory. The Sunday Times claims unrelated gas discoveries in the region have sparked disputes between Israel and Lebanon in the past making the float a controversial political move.
Sagi originally listing Playtech on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2006 before bringing the software company to the main market in July this year. The stock began trading at 333p a share and sits at 372.5p at the time of writing.
Seven days in people news:
Steve Gee, one of the players at the final table of this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event, has signed up as the latest representative of Asian-facing site Poker Ace. The 57-year-old Chinese-born American player, who has one WSOP bracelet, is the oldest of the ‘October Nine’ and the fourth member of the Poker Ace team after Nam Le, JC Tran and 2005 world champion Joe Hachem.
Bookmaker content provider SIS has appointed Mike Whittaker as chief technology officer. Whittaker, who has held senior roles at Ericsson and the BBC, will work with newly appointed COO Gary Smith, in setting and delivering SIS’ future technology strategy.
UK payment processing firm SecureTrading has appointed Justin Fraser as sales and marketing director Europe as it seeks to support aggressive expansion plans in Europe and consolidate its US operation.