PLAYTECH HAS BIG ACQUISITION SPENDING PLANS

Playtech plc's chief finance officer Shuki Barak has revealed that the software developer has some ambitious spending plans in its acquisition strategies, with a number of targets in mind that include an as yet unidentified marketing business which could be the subject of a $750 million takeover deal

In an interview with the publication Mergermarket, Barak said that Playtech has a call option on the undisclosed target, based on a 5.5x multiple over annual profits of $500 million. The company holds the option until March 2011.

Commenting that the deal will dwarf Playtech's $250 million involvement in William Hill Online (see previous InfoPowa reports), Barak said that the company is additionally considering four smaller targets including a hosting provider, a customer services specialist and a payment advisory firm, and is set to seal between 10 and 15 licensing agreements before the end of 2009.

Barak confirmed that Playtech was not interested in troubled operations such as Codere in Spain, preferring to remain as far as possible focused on software development rather than direct operational matters.

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

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