PartyGaming, the world’s biggest online poker company, has settled weeks of intense speculation by announcing plans to float on the London Stock Exchange in what is likely to be the City’s biggest new listing for four years.
Based in Gibraltar, PartyGaming barely existed four years ago but riding a wave of popularity in online poker playing, the operator of the PartyPoker website is set to be valued at GBP 5 billion, bringing a major windfall for executives, shareholders and employees.
With that sort of valuation, PartyGaming would immediately enter the FTSE 100 share index. The flotation would be London’s biggest since insurer Friends Provident in 2001.