PartyGaming IPO Lift-off
PartyGaming the leading online poker company has successfully launched on the UK stock exchange at a valuation of up to £5bn, getting off the ground at approximately 125 pence per share.
Founded in 1997, PartyGaming will have a market value near enough to that of giant retailer Sainsbury, and comfortably surpassing that of other household names such as British Airways and Scottish and Newcastle. Without doubt Partygaming is set for the FTSE 100 come the next review.
"We are delighted that the IPO has received an excellent response from major UK and international institutional investors," chief executive Richard Segal said in a statement.
The big question over the flotation is will at any stage in the future the site be taken off the internet in the US. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares had been doused in controversy amid concern that regulators in the United States could clamp down on its operations.
With the US government under pressure to curb online gambling on moral grounds, the US Justice Department says several laws that prohibit interstate gambling apply to the internet as well, and it intends to prosecute violators.
The IPO is set to make multi-millionaires out of PartyGaming's three founders, computer engineering student, Anurag Dikshit, college pal Vikrant Bhargava and their business partner, Californian lawyer-turned-porn princess, Ruth Parasol.
PartyGaming, which owns three brands,PartyPoker.Com, StarluckCasino.Com and PartyBingo.com, claims to have more than a 50pc share of the world's online poker market, estimated to be worth around USD1.3bn per year in terms of rake.
