PartyGaming Founders Forced to Cash in Chips Cheaply

Monday June 12, 2006

As reported by the Daily Telegraph: "An attempt by Party Gaming's four founders to sell 350m shares to raise ?420m has backfired after buyers agreed to take far fewer and only at a knockdown price.

"Less than a year after the online gambling group's controversial listing, Anurag Dikshit, Ruth Parasol, her husband Russel DeLeon and Vikrant Bhargava had to settle for selling only 200m shares at the 116p float price. The ?232m they made is on top of the ?1bn they took out at last June's float.

"The price was a discount to Tuesday's closing price of 122?p and the sale knocked investor confidence, with Party Gaming shares falling 4? to 117?p yesterday..."