The strong rise in price of the online poker giant\’s shares (+74% in the last two months) came abruptly to an end when Lehman Brothers downgraded its rating on the stock to \’underweight\’ from \’overweight\’.
The US broker told its clients not to read too much into the strong trends reported by PartyGaming last week, when the online poker operator revealed that full-year profits were likely to exceed expectations.
“October/November trends were strong but mainly as the consequence of IT improvements made to the platform. We recognise the introduction of blackjack has been a success. However, it is early days and PartyGaming management is already talking about a novelty factor and a substitution effect on poker,” said Craig Fraser, an analyst at Lehman Brothers.
Elsewhere, trading in Hilton Group was boosted by rumors of a possible bid coming from a venture capital group to take over Ladbrokes\’ betting operations. In separate news, the bookmaker announced it is to offer tax-free betting in all of its 150 Irish shops.
Rumours of a break-up bid for Rank Group, the parent company of Blue Square, were doing the rounds again following last week\’s announcement that the company selected preferred bidders for the sale of its Deluxe media arm.
William Hill appointed Simon Lane as group Finance Director. Lane will be taking up the role in the first quarter of 2006, although a joining date has not yet been finalized.
Calculators
