Party Gaming - Stock rose 6.5 percent Thursday

30.06.2005

Party Gaming's listing on the London stock exchange continued to gather steam today as the public entered the market following Wednesday's mainly institutional investor buying which saw the shares up almost 14 percent. Public sentiment drove the stock up a further 6.5 percent Thursday.

The stock was at 148 pence ($2.65) in late afternoon dealing on the London Stock Exchange, well above its offer price of 116 pence at the start of trading earlier this week.

Associated Press reports that the market value of the Gibraltar-based company now exceeds 5.7 billion pounds ($10.21 billion).

Analysts had originally expected an offering that would value the company at close to 5.5 billion pounds ($9.9 billion), given the boom in the worldwide online poker market -- of which PartyGaming estimates it has a 55 percent share.

But PartyGaming said it planned to sell shares at between 111 pence and 127 pence, a lower than expected range. Some analysts blamed that on investors' fears about a U.S. clampdown on online gambling. PartyGaming, which runs the partypoker.com Web site, derives about 87 percent of its income from U.S. gamblers.

PartyGaming's online poker gaming room has attracted more than 1 million users since it was set up in 2001. Customers pay a type of commission known as rake to play against each other on individual tables of up to 10 players or in tournaments.

The group, formerly known as iGlobalMedia, also has gaming brands including Starluck Casino and PartyBingo.