Partygaming, owners of Party Poker (Partypoker.com), are about to go all-in (sorry, bad one) in the UK Stock Market.
Party Poker IPO Coming Soon
THE stock market flotation of PartyGaming, the controversial internet poker operator, looked odds-on to succeed last night despite the resignation of a high-profile member of its advisory team.
Sources close to the company, which will go straight into the FTSE 100, confirmed that enough institutions had placed orders in the bookbuilding process to get the initial public offering (IPO) away within the price range set by its adviser, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DKW).
...The apparent success of PartyGaming’s IPO comes despite negative publicity over the legality of internet gambling in the US, its main market, the colourful past of Ruth Parasol, its founder, and the huge sums of money involved. Ms Parasol, who made her first fortune running internet porn sites and sex chatlines, and her three co-owners are selling shares worth more than £800 million in the IPO, while retaining a combined 71.5 per cent.
Richard Segal, the chief executive, will get shares worth £44.4 million at the lower end of the price range and Michael Jackson, the non-executive chairman, will get a one-off fee of £1.5 million.
PartyGaming, which is based in Gibraltar, dominates the burgeoning internet poker market with its PartyPoker website.