WHO DUMPED THE PARTY GAMING SHARES?

2 March 2007

GBP50 million worth of shares hit the London market

The Times Online was speculating this week on who the owner of a tranche of Party Gaming shares worth some GBP 50 million may be after the stock was dumped on the London market and brought values down.

The newspaper commented: "Knowing when to hold and when to fold has been the key skill for PartyGaming shareholders, who have seen their investment buffeted over the past year by arrests, prohibition laws, stock sales and apparently spurious takeover theories.

"For a few hours yesterday, the attention returned to trading. Shares gained as much as 3¼p to 43p on optimism that the poker site operator’s annual results due Thursday will impress.

"PartyGaming is said to have benefited from payment processors such as Neteller closing the door on US players who were using rival sites, thereby making its tables look more popular by comparison. Dresdner Klienwort, the group’s house broker, estimated the number of poker players using real money had risen by 30 percent since the end of November.

"But this optimism did not extend to one shareholder, who used the strength to dump about GBP50 million of stock via Morgan Stanley. Shares erased gains in reaction as 300 million were traded - about five times the daily average."

While the seller’s identity was a mystery, some dealers reckoned the bundle of 123 million issues could have come from Orbis. The Bermuda-based fund is believed to have bought stock owned by founder Vikrant Bhargava in January. Nevertheless, the founders’ history of choosing their moments to sell meant nobody was prepared to rule them out.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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