Shares in the world\’s largest online poker group lost over 7% as the company four founders attempted to sell 350 million shares in an accelerated book-building process which began on Wednesday.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein was forced to scale back the sale to 200 million shares which netted Ruth Parasol, Russ DeLeon, Anurag Dikshit and Vikrant Bhargava “just” £232m instead of the expected £420m.
Following the placing, the founder shareholders continue to hold, in aggregate, 65.7% of the company\’s issued share capital, while the free float has increased to 28.1%. In addition, PartGaming has been informed that the four founders have agreed to extend their existing lock-up which expires on June 30 and that they will not dispose of any further shares without the prior consent of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein until 31 December 2006.
A PartyGaming spokesman said that for the company to keep its favourable tax staus in Gibraltar, the founders have to maintain a majority holding until 2010. “And if they chose to sell below, they\’d have to give the company 12 months notice,” he added.
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