The UK-focused online casino has been admitted to trading on London’s AIM despite being unable to raise any new money.
32Red decided to postpone the fund raising in the wake of last week\’s PartyGaming collapse.
“In the middle of our roadshow, sentiment turned against us. It would have been very difficult to have issued equity at the price we wanted,” said the Chief Executive, Ed Ware.
“I’m quite happy with the situation, and when the market sentiment has turned around we may look at a fundraising from a much stronger position.”
Ware said he was not disappointed as the listing will enhance 32Red\’s credibility and give it the opportunity of convincing the market it has a better business model than the thousands of other online gambling companies.
“Unlike some other firms, the issue of raising money to put in anyone’s pockets was never on the agenda for us. It\’s about accelerating our growth,” he added.
During the six months ended June 30, 32Red, which has 15,000 real money casino players and 4,000 real money poker players, generated revenues of £4.2m, with around 80 per cent of it drawn from the UK and Ireland, and a net profit of £1.0m.
The company intends to keep focusing on the UK market, undertaking some offline marketing campaigns at UK football grounds and through British horseracing sponsorships, but it also plans to increase marketing activities in Japan, Scandinavia and other European regions.
Calculators
