GVC boss: We'll make bwin bid today and expect to win
Kenneth Alexander tells eGR his firm will lodge formal offer this afternoon and expects saga to conclude next week
GVC Holdings will lodge a formal offer to acquire bwin.party later this afternoon and fully expects to steal the deal away from rival bidder 888 Holdings, its chief executive Kenneth Alexander (pictured) has said.
Speaking to eGaming Review shortly after his firm reported a 17% increase in H1 EBITDA, Alexander said he planned to contact bwin.party chairman Philip Yea in the hope of concluding what has been one of the most protracted acquisition battles in egaming history.
“Later today we will issue our offer and if it is greater than 888’s then we expect to win,” Alexander said, adding that he thought 888 would need to improve its current 104p share offer if it was to defeat GVC.
“I know what’s on the screen at the moment but Brian might have risen it today or might make an improved offer but unless 888’s offer is greater than GVC’s than I would hope and expect that we would win – I don’t see why not,” he added.
Alexander said GVC had successfully managed to work through and satisfy concerns the bwin.party board had regarding its proposal, specifically in relation to its 135m costs synergy figure, which is almost double that proposed by 888.
“The synergy figure was attracting a lot of attention,” Alexander said. “Is it a bigger synergy figure than 888? Yes, of course. But we run a sportsbook and they don’t so we were always going to get greater synergies – it’s not because we are slashing and burning or anything else,” he added.
And the chief exec, who successfully masterminded the turnaround of Sportingbet, believes now the previous issues have been put to bed, the bwin.party board will side with the firm tabling the highest offer.
“The bwin board said the complexities have been taken away and they’ve said we’ve addressed every single concern they’ve had, so now it’s a level playing field and as far as I’m concerned it should go down to price.
“If 888 don’t raise their bid I fully expect GVC to win and if 888 raises its price but it is still lower than ours than I expect to win.
“I can’t tell you what the price we bid will be but I’m very confident it will be a greater price than 888’s. The first person that will know the price will be the bwin chairman and his advisors,” he added.
And Alexander also addressed the suggestion that GVC would be unable to generate as much value out of bwin.party than rival bidder 888, and highlighted today’s H1 results as reason to be confident.
“The results today show we are not just about taking costs out. We are growing faster than 888 and if we are successful in acquiring bwin we will grow the business greater than 888, as well as realising greater cost synergies,” he said.
Alexander said he expected a final decision would be made next week.