Party Gaming Stocks Take a Dive

September 6 -  PartyGaming Plc shares took a plunge yesterday after the release of their first set of results following their listing on the UK stock exchange. The share came down by almost 28% on the back of  the online gambling group announcing that growth rates can be expected to slow down. The share came down by 32.5 p, to 124.25 p, compared to the IPO price of 116 p.

The reason that slowed growth can be expected, said PartyGaming, is that more recreational players are starting to play online resulting in shorter customer retention rates. Increased competition is also to blame.

"We expect good annual growth in revenues, but at a rate slower than we have experienced,'' the group commented.

The group announced its results for the first half of 2005 with net income up by 25 percent to $171 million, an EPS of 4.5 cents a share. Net income was $136.5 million, in the previous year.

Revenue, which is earned from poker rake, was up by 81 percent to $437.4 million.

Party Poker will look for growth in new regions such as i the U.K., Australia and Scandinavia. It is expected that they will make a counter offer for Empire Online Ltd., who are apparently in talks with UK betting giant, Sportingbet PLC.

There is currently no share dividend being planned.

Send To A Friend

Add This Gambling Article To:
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb	OnlyWire
Redit	StumbleUpon	Technocrati