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Playtech plots M&A trail inc $750m marketing company 25/06/2009

Jon Parker

Playtech is considering a string of acquisitions in coming months including a $500-750m deal to take over a marketing business, chief finance officer Shuki Barak said today.

Playtech has a call option on the undisclosed target., he said in an interview with Mergermarket. The call option is based on a 5.5x multiple over annual profits of $500m, Barak added, which will expire in March 2011.

Barak said that the operation will be two to three times bigger than Playtech’s $250m deal with William Hill in 2008.

Playtech is also looking at four smaller targets including a hosting provider, a customer services specialist and a payment advisory firm, he added, and is planning to finalize between 10-15 licence agreements by the end of the year.

Barak said Playtech would not bid for distressed gaming operators such as Spain’s Codere, which split from a joint venture with William Hill in Spain in May, but will remain focused on software development and will not try to access operational activities.

Barak said: “as a pure software supplier we have no intention of going into operations as it would create a conflict of interest. We could only consider a minority stake investment in a gaming operator, but this is unlikely to happen in the short term.”

As reported on EGRmagazine.com last week, banking giant Deutsche predicts Playtech is due for a revenue surge.

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Posted: 25/06/2009

Tags: M&A , Playtech , Shuki Barak

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