Further Details On Playtech London Listing
Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
FURTHER DETAIL ON PLAYTECH LONDON LISTING
IPO due "within the month" says spokesman
News on what is likely to be one of the biggest online gaming listings on the
London AIM this year was coming in thick and fast as the week closed, with
a Playtech spokesman revealing plans to sell $300 million in shares in
an initial public offering now valuing the company at $950 million.
Earlier this week the Financial Times reported that an IPO was imminent,
and Playtech confirmed this early this (Friday) morning.
The British Virgin Islands-based company will probably list the shares "within
the month,'' said a spokesman. Teddy Sagi, who helped establish the company,
leads a group of shareholders that owns more than 50 percent of the business,
the spokesman said.
Playtech designs, develops and licenses software for Internet gaming companies
including GoldenPalace.com and Empire Online Ltd., a company that helps gambling
Web sites attract players. Playtech has 37 licensees which operate in 89 online
casinos, 16 online poker rooms and 14 bingo sites, it said.
Founded in 1999, Playtech had after-tax profit of $35.6 million in 2005, compared
with $8.2 million in 2003, the company said in the statement. Sales quadrupled
over those two years to $47.6 million.
Playtech competitors include Toronto, Canada-based CryptoLogic Inc., which has
a market value of C$379.8 million ($329 million)
While the company's management is based on the Isle of Man, 90 percent of its
workers are in Estonia. The company has a ``close relationship'' with the University
of Tartu, located in the southern part of the Baltic country, and recruits its
graduates as software developers, the spokesman said.
Israeli press coverage on the company late last year included some interesting
inside detail, claiming that Playtech was founded in 2000 by NAV New Age Investments
Ltd., controlled by Sagi and three 30-something entrepreneurs from central Israel,
with current Playtech VP marketing incumbent Elad Cohen as CEO. NAV was delisted
from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in 2003.
The other two founders are said to be Amnon Ben-Zion and CEO Rami Beinish. Ben-Zion
and Cohen met during their compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence
Force central processing unit. Ben-Zion sold his Playtech stake a year ago.
The article reports that a valuation for Playtech conducted for NAV in late 2002
found that NAV owned 68 percent of the company, Elad Cohen 19 percent, and the
other two founders 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Playtech was valued
at $18.4 million, after deducting debts, a figure that now seems unlikely. The
valuation was carried out for a failed attempt by Sagi to obtain capital for the
company by issuing 10 percent of its capital to an external investor. The valuation
indicated that Playtech had $4.5 million in revenue in 2002, and an operating
profit before financing expenses of $1.5 million.
