Legality of online poker threatens flotation

The biggest flotation in London since 2001 could be derailed by fears over the legality of online poker in the United States, it was reported today.

PartyGaming, which owns and runs the biggest web-based poker brand, has unveiled plans for a listing that could value it at up to $10bn (€8.2bn).

But analysts at major US institutions said they would not automatically back the flotation because of concerns about the legality of internet gambling across the Atlantic, according to The Observer.

Fund managers are understood to need convincing that the US government will not harm the Gibraltar-based owner of the PartyPoker brand.

A failure to secure the backing of major institutions could force PartyGaming to lower its target price or possibly pull the float altogether, the report stated.

PartyGaming unveiled its flotation plans on Thursday - a move that would herald windfalls for its four owners and about 1,100 staff in the UK, Gibraltar and India.

Operations director Anurag Dikshit, husband-and-wife team Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon and Vikrant Bhargava, who own the group between them, could net about $2bn (€1.6bn) from the proposed sale of 23% of their shares.

PartyGaming will also give staff a 5.6% stake that would be worth a total of $560m (€458m)

Its PartyPoker.com online poker gaming room has attracted more than one million users since it was set up in 2001.

http://www.sbpost.ie/breakingnews - 2005-06-07 04:49:38