Ireland: Online Betting Boost As Paddy Power Gears Up For IPO
Reports
last month suggested that Paddy Power, Ireland's largest
bookmaker, could move a large chunk of its operations
to Malta. Its managing director, Stuart Kenny, was
reported to have announced that his company is planning
to shift its entire Internet betting operation and
possibly its telephone betting arm to Malta if there
are no further tax cuts by the Irish government in
the December budget. The company was awarded a betting
licence in Malta in October. However, moving plans
seem to have been put on the back burner for a while,
since Paddy Power is now preoccupied with its impending
flotation on the London and Dublin stock exchanges,
which is set to value the company at around Euro100m
and swell the company's coffers considerably. This
week Paddy Power's management begins the roadshow
for the flotation and the company's shares are expected
to begin trading in the next few weeks once the roadshow
has been completed and the level of interest from
investors has been ascertained. Goodbody Corporate
Finance is managing the initial public offering (IPO),
which is aimed to increase the profile of the company
along with generating cash for further acquisitions
in the UK. The group
had turnover of over I£210m in 1999, from which
profits of over I£6m were generated. Set up
in 1988, Paddy Power now has around 30 per cent market
share in Ireland and is aiming to become a major player
in the British market. In the
last year the company has launched its online tax-free
betting service, Paddypower.com, which it plans to
roll out in Britain. Because of the huge growth forecast
for the online betting market (currently valued at
around US$1bn and expected to grow to over US$10bn
by 2005), there is speculation that Irish financier
Dermot Desmond is setting up a global betting operation
out of Dublin's International Financial Services Centre. .
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