CVC Capital Partners Examines Sky Betting For London IPO

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has appointed the investment bank Rothschild & Co to examine the possible London stock listing of gambling company Sky Betting & Gaming, Reuters reported on Monday.

Rothschild is in the process of organising a “beauty contest” for next week to select which banks will set up the initial public offering, which is expected to value the company in the range of GBP2.50 billion and GBP3.00 billion, the news agency reported citing people familiar with the matter.

Sky Betting & Gaming is currently 80% owned by CVC Capital Partners, with the remaining stake held by Sky PLC. CVC first acquired the interest in Sky Bet in 2014, valued at GBP800.0 million at the times.

According to Sky Bet’s annual report for the year ended June 30, 2017, the company made a pretax loss of GBP3.0 million, narrowed from GBP37.8 million the year before, on revenue of GBP515.8 million, up from GBP373.6 million.