Shareholders taking a gamble on online gaming firm GVC Holdings PLC (LON:GVC) were rewarded with an increase in its planned special dividend today as the owner of Sportingbet hiked its profit forecasts.
The FTSE 250-listed firm — which acquired rival bwin.partygaming in a £1bln takeover last year – said its full-year profits would be at the top end of expectations as recent strong trading continued into December.
GVC, whose other brands include Foxy Bingo and PartyPoker, raised its planned special dividend by 49% to 14.9 euro cents a share, or around 12.5p in sterling terms, up from the 10 euro cents, or 8.4p a share previously announced.
Kenneth Alexander, GVC’s chief executive officer, said: "Momentum across the Group has continued to build throughout the year and is a reflection of the hard work of our employees, quality of our technology and strength of our brands.
“The integration of bwin.party is proceeding positively and ahead of our original expectations. We continue to look forward to 2017 with confidence and expect to achieve further significant progress."
In reaction to the good news, GVC shares jumped over 5% higher, up 33p to 648p, with the stock having already gained nearly 40% so far this year.
Ladbrokes Coral tale ...
GVC shares did take a step back earlier this week after press reports said that early stage talks with newly-merged Ladbrokes Coral PLC (LON:LCL) had ended without agreement.
Ladbrokes Coral had allegedly approached GVC about a potential reverse takeover which would have seen GVC’s highly rated chief executive run the enlarged group.
Ladbroke Coral shares edged 0.2p higher today to 118.7p.
Sector peer ...
Elsewhere in the sector, another online gaming company 888 Holdings PLC (LON:888) said today that it expects its underlying earnings (EBITDA) to be in line with its expectations, after also continuing to perform well since the end of the first half.
888’s CEO Itai Frieberger said: “We have continued to make strong progress against our growth strategy by developing 888's offering across regulated markets, investing in our proprietary platform and driving further growth in our core B2C business, led by Casino and Sport,"
However, shares in 888 – which saw its cheeky joint bid with casinos operator Rank Group (LON.RNK) for bookies William Hill (LON:WMH) torpedoed earlier this year – shed 0.5p at 205.75p.