Party IPO

[Martin]

Just heard this on CNBC Europe:

Anyway here is the link to the Reuters website:
Reuters Story (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8667642)

[FMMonty]

Full reuters story below

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Shuffle up and deal.
Partygaming PLC, one of the world's largest online gaming companies, Thursday
announced plans for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange that
could value the company at more than $10 billion, according to analysts.
The estimated market capitalization of Partygaming is based on a comparison with
sportingbet.com (SBT.LN), an AIM-listed peer which trades at around 30-times last
year's earnings, excluding its recent acquisition of another online gaming
company.
Partygaming, whose shares are expected to begin trading at the end of June, could
rank in the top-half of the FTSE-100 by size, but couldn't officially be included
in the FTSE-100 until September when the FTSE committee meets to reexamine the
index constituents.
In addition to market value, there are additional criteria to being included in
the FTSE-100 such as trading volume.
Partygaming owns and operates the world's largest online poker brand, Partypoker,
and says it regularly has 70,000 players simultaneously gambling online.
The Gilbraltar-based company has a 55% market share of the global online gaming
business, said Richard Segal, Partygaming chief executive.
Partygaming's principal revenue stream comes from online poker which in 2004
accounted for approximately 92%, or $553 million, of its revenue. Its bingo and
casino units generated $48.6 million in revenue last year.
Partygaming posted net profit of $350.1 million in 2004 and revenues of $601.6
million. In 2003 the company recorded net profit of $83.6 million, and $4.7
million in 2002.
In the first quarter of 2005 net profit was $117.4 million and revenues were
$222.6 million.
"A float will help to facilitate our strategy of expanding internationally,
increasing our range of products, and funding merger and acquisitions activity,"
said Segal.
Twenty-three percent of the company's share capital will be sold by management,
founders and employees, and is expected to be traded in free float.
A additional 5.6% of the company will be put into a dedicated trust for the
benefit of current and future employees. Current employees will be given
zero-cost share options worth 64% of the trust, which will vest over a 4-to-5
year period.
In addition to Segal, who will retain 1% following the offering, Partygaming's
management team is led by non-executive Chairman Michael Jackson, who is also
chairman of the FTSE-100 software company Sage Group PLC (SGE.LN).
The company's four founders are Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon, Anurag Dikshit and
Vikrant Bhargava. Dikshit is the largest single shareholder controlling about 40%
of the company.
PartyGaming employs 1,100 people, most of whom are based in Hyderabad, India, the
site of its back office and software development units.
As of the end of March the company had 1 million registered real money players of
which it considers 400,000 to be active players. The company said that in 2004
over 1 billion hands of poker were played at its online site.
The largest pay out to date was $1.5 million during a pre-Easter tournament,
which had a total prize pool of $7.4 million.
Gibraltar is the home to several online gaming companies while the majority of
players are American. An estimated 80% of online poker players are based in the
U.S., and there are various pieces of proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress
aiming to regulate the industry.
Partygaming doesn't currently offer sports betting, and said it wanted to list
its shares in London because of what Segal characterized as a more sympathetic
climate for online gambling that in the U.S.
Partygaming will only be targeting U.K. and European institutions on its
roadshows, said Segal.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is acting as sponsor and global bookrunner for the
offer.
Company Web site: http://www.partygaming.com
By Corey Boles of Dow Jones Newswires; +44 20 7842 9254; corey.boles@dowjones.com

[70challenger]

Are there any shares available in the company right now as a private company before they IPO??

Earnings look pretty good.

[parttimepro]

No. That's why it's called an Initial Public Offering. It's the first time they're offering shares to the public.

[wtfwtfwtf]

I know this is a really stupid question.
But how would I go about buying some of these?

Cheers
Dan

[TylerD]

What are people's thoughts on the prospect of investing in Party?

[Wee Stinker]

Looks to me like the owners are just trying to get some cash for themselves. The recent growth has been astronomical and their costs are pretty low and profits pretty high but my $0.02 says that there won't be much short term growth beyond the IPO price.

[r2b2]

It will be traded on the London Stock Exchange. You need to place a special order with your broker to buy. I use Etrade and I have to call to place the order. Additional fees.

[70challenger]

I have to disagree with that last post somewhat....gaming stocks do rather well if the investment consortium looks at the bottom line conservatively..and are careful not to exagerate forcasted revenue...a good example of this is a company on the AIM market called GVC....they started at 450p and ran up to 878p in 2 months but are currently back down to about 600p....(IPO was Dec. 21/04)

And the reason I asked if we could buy shares in Party before the IPO...is because I'm currently with a private gaming company and they are offerring private shares @1.00 each before they IPO. They will hopefully IPO in Oct. this year....they're called aspiritus.

https://aspirituscorporate.com

You have to be a member to buy these discounted shares.

In any case.....please post the symbol for party so we can look into this a little further.

Thanks in advance.

[Shoe]

Is there a date set for the IPO yet?

[michiganfan9]

I think the pricing occurs June 28th but the IPO won't hit out until july/august. Please correct me if i'm wrong, i'm not 100% sure about that, but I thought I read it on forbes somewhere.

[Martin]

Monday June 27, 07:20 AM
PartyGaming sets 116p price
LONDON (ShareCast) - PartyGaming , the online poker giant, is all set to join the FTSE (news) 100 soon as the controversial website joins the market today.

The casino site has set its offer
price at 116p per ordinary share to institutional investors, making the group's market cap at the start of trade as £4.64bn.

Conditional dealings are expected to commence on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE.L - news) at 8:00am today, while PartyGaming's shares will be admitted to the Official List with unconditional dealings to commence on 30 June 2005.

Richard Segal, chief executive, said, "We are delighted that the IPO has received an excellent response from major UK and international institutional investors. The listing will reinforce the Group's position as one of the world's leading online gaming companies".

[David Steele]

started trading now PRTY.L at about 126 p

[apokera]

Need conversion pleasee. How much is 126p in american dollars? thanks!

[Martin]

Go to Yahoo Finance Yahoo Currency (http://finance.yahoo.com/currency) and use the currency converter for the days exchange rate. 100 pence make up 1 British pound. All London stocks trade in Pence. So currently if the stock is at 126 pence thats 1.26 Pounds. 2.3 USD if you convert at the given rate on Yahoo. Note you won't get that rate since your broker is going to screw you on Forex conversion. Also remeber that there is a 1 percent stamp duty on UK Stocks.