GVC again sweetens offer to try to pry Bwin from 888 Holdings

[August 07, 2015] (Reuters) - British online gambling company GVC Holdings Plc raised its offer to buy rival Bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plc for a second time in two weeks, hoping to pry the company away from 888 Holdings Plc.

GVC's latest cash-and-stock offer for Bwin is worth 1.03 billion pounds ($1.6 billion), slightly higher than its previous offer of about 1 billion pounds, which was already higher than 888's 900-million pound cash-and-stock offer.

Still, Bwin had accepted online casino and poker firm 888's offer, deeming GVC's offer too complex and with less attractive growth prospects.

Bwin and GVC said on Friday the companies were working to evaluate GVC's latest offer. GVC said it expects the process to conclude within the next 5-10 business days.

The bidding war for Bwin highlights a move towards consolidation in an industry where firms are trying to gain scale to offset an increase in taxes and tighter regulation in Britain.

Bwin, created through a merger of sports betting group Bwin and online poker group PartyGaming in 2011, has itself struggled with the decline of regulated poker markets in Europe and has had to make cost cuts.

William Hill Plc, Britain's largest bookmaker, on Friday said it had bought a sizeable stake NeoGames, an online lottery software provider focused on the United States.

GVC's latest offer of 125.5 pence per Bwin share – 25 pence in cash and 0.231 of a new GVC share – is 2.4 percent higher than its previous proposal on July 27. GVC's shares have risen by about 1.5 percent during the same period.

The new offer is still short of the 135-140 pence-per-share price that SpringOwl, one of Bwin's top five shareholders, had said would entice shareholders to the table.

U.S. activist investor Jason Ader, who runs SpringOwl, could not be reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

Bwin shares were up marginally at 117.3 pence at 1054 GMT, while GVC was slightly down at 437 pence. 888 was unchanged at 170 pence.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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