NIALL McGEE
Friday, November 28, 2014
Which S&P/TSX-listed company has delivered the biggest stock return this year? If you rolled the dice across the 251 member board, and came up trumps with Amaya Gaming Group Inc., I’ll tip my Irish hat to you. The Montreal-based gaming company has seen its share price rise 383 per cent in 2014, crushing the average return of 9 per cent, and nearly three times higher than the 130-per-cent gain recorded by second best performer Detour Gold.
Amaya’s startling rise, and the whopping deal that sparked it, shows just how hot the online gaming sector is – and has put the industry on alert for a wave of mergers and acquisitions.
In June, Amaya announced it was buying Oldford Group Ltd. – the owner of PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker website, in terms of users – for $4.9-billion (U.S.). Amaya borrowed about $3-billion to get the ‘David buys Goliath’ deal done. The acquisition also made Amaya the world’s biggest publicly-held online gambling company.
A few weeks ago, the Financial Times reported a rumour that Amaya was ready to make a £1.2-billion ($2.15-billion) bid for for bwin.party digital entertainment PLC, a U.K.-listed gaming company. bwin.party admitted it had “entered into preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties regarding a variety of potential business combinations.“ Nothing has materialized yet, though.
Over the past couple of weeks, chatter has mounted that another company in the gaming space, Toronto-based Intertain Group Ltd., is on the verge of making an acquisition. Intertain is a much smaller company than Amaya, with a market capitalization of about $364-million, but the two companies have some history. Intertain was founded in 2011, when it purchased casino assets from Amaya. Amaya is also Intertain’s biggest shareholder, with an 8.7 percent stake according to data from Thomson Reuters.
Intertain has already had a busy year on the mergers and acquisitions front. In July, it completed the acquisition of online bingo provider Mandalay Media for £45-million in cash (purchase price may rise to £60-million if certain performance metrics are met). In October, it announced the purchase of Dumarca Holdings Ltd., the Malta-based parent company of online casino player Vera&John Group for $126-million.
In a telephone interview, Intertain CEO John Fitzgerald said that “strategic acquisitions are important to us going forward. And we will pursue them.”
One analyst said in an interview that another acquisition by Intertain “is certainly part of the latest speculation that is percolating the stock.” Intertain’s share price has gone from $13.50 to north of $17 in the past couple of weeks. Like Amaya, it has had a great year, with its stock up over 285 percent in 2014.
Addressing rumours of an upcoming acquisition being in the works, Mr. Fitzgerald said “There is no legal binding agreement in place that would lead us to make any announcements.” When pressed to answer if a deal was imminent, he said “We are in discussions with various different companies.”
Mr. Fitzgerald, a former professional football player, has been part of the online gaming world since the beginning. He worked as general counsel with Cryptologic, a pioneer in the online gaming world from 2002-2005, and co-founded Virgin Gaming (now known as World Gaming).
As for clues to what specific area the next acquisition from a gaming company might come from, mobile (smartphone and tablet computers) is where the next wave of growth is expected.
Mackie Research Capital Corp. analyst, Nikhil Thadani recently wrote in an a research note, “Mobile is a major channel focus for all providers. Every exhibitor we met [at Global Gaming Expo 2014 in Las Vegas] acknowledged the growing importance of mobile beyond sports betting to include casino and bingo games.”
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