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A spokesman for online gaming software company, Playtech, revealed earlier this week the company’s plans to go public on the London AIM this year. Playtech will be selling $300 million in shares in an IPO valuing the company at $950 million. The listing could turn out to be one of the biggest online gaming listings yet on the AIM. On Friday Playtech confirmed an earlier report issued by the Financial Times that a Playtech IPO was imminent. According to a company spokesman, Playtech, which is based in the British Virgin Islands, will likely list the shares within the month. The spokesman also said that Teddy Sagi, the man who helped establish Playtech, leads a group of shareholders that owns more than fifty percent of the business. Playtech designs, develops and licenses software for several Internet gaming companies including GoldenPalace.com and Empire Online Ltd. Empire Online is “skin” company that helps direct players to other gambling Web sites. Playtech has 37 licensees, which operate in 89 online casinos, 16 online poker rooms and 14 bingo sites. The company was founded in 1999 and showed an after-tax profit of $35.6 million in 2005. That figure, compared with the $8.2 million profit earned in 2002 indicates that sales quadrupled over the last two years to $47.6 million. Toronto, Canada-based CryptoLogic Inc is Playtech’s main competitor. CryptoLogic has a market value of $329 million (C$379.8 million). Ninety percent of Playtech’s workers are from Estonia even though management is based on the Isle of Man. Many of the company’s workers are graduates in software development from the University of Tartu with which Playtech has a close working relationship. According to an article in the Israeli press last year, Playtech was founded in the year 2000 by NAV New Age Investments Ltd., controlled by Sagi and three 30-something entrepreneurs from central Israel. Elad Cohen, the current vice president of marketing at Playtech, is also Playtech’s CEO. NAV was delisted from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in 2003. Rami Beinish is another Playtech founder along with Amnon Ben-Zion. Ben-Zion, who sold his stake in Playtech one year ago, met Sagi while they were both performing their compulsory military service in the Israeli Defense Forces. The article also revealed that a valuation conducted on Playtech found that NAV owned 68 percent of the company, Elad Cohen owned 19 percent and Ben-Zion and Beinish owned seven percent respectively. Related Links: Posted on: February 21, 2006
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