Online Cars From Aussie Gambling Group

Published: Monday, September 25, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

ONLINE CARS FROM AUSSIE GAMBLING GROUP

Packer's PBL has diverse British oriented projects

The Australian gambling and media dynamo Publishing and Broadcasting Limited is expanding its online and gambling business....with Britain firmly in its sights.

CEO James Packer announced this week that new expansion plans for the group include buying an Australian online car site and agreeing to buy up to 50 percent of a UK casino business.

The company has offered A$1.21 each for the shares it does not already own in Carsales.com.au, valuing the unlisted online car site at A$270 million (GBP 106.5 million) reports Reuters. PBL will also pay A$91.8 million for a 46 percent stake in Aspinall's casino business in the United Kingdom.

Gaming helped drive 12 percent growth in annual profit in the last business year at PBL, offsetting a fall in profit at its free-to-air Nine Network television channel.

Apsinall's runs a London casino, a recently opened casino in the northern city Newcastle and a casino being developed in Swansea in Wales. Management is pursuing a number of possibilities to develop casinos in various regional cities in the UK, PBL said.

"Aspinall's is a platform for our expansion into the growing UK gaming market, said PBL Chief Executive and Managing Director John Alexander in a statement. "It is a long established business with a strongly recognised brand."

PBL also said it has acquired a further 2.4 percent stake in SEEK Ltd. Australia's top online job search site, for A$35.3 million. Seek revealed last week that it had bought a 25 percent stake in Chinese Internet employment site Zhaopin Ltd.