GAN backers cash in with €90 million flotation

The original backers of GameAccountNetwork (GAN), including businessman Dermot Desmond, have taken £7.2 million (€8.6m) off the table as part of its £75 million (€90 million) listing next Monday in Dublin and London.

The Smurfit family, who founded the gaming technology company in 2002, will control a 33 per cent stake following the listing, which raised £15 million by placing new shares to fund GAN’s foray into the US online casino market.

Dermot Smurfit Jnr, GAN's chief executive, said the company's backers decided to cash in a 10 per cent stake after the share placing was oversubscribed. "We were invited by our bankers to expand the issuance, but we only wanted to raise £15 million and didn't want the extra cash sitting on the balance sheet. So the extra shares were sold to meet the demands of the marketplace."

Mr Smurfit said the placing was "heavily backed" by international institutions. Blackrock International has taken a 4.7 per cent stake, U1K fund Artemis subscribed for 5.6 per cent, while Odey Asset Management retains 6 per cent.

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According to documents filed yesterday with the Aim market in London and the ESM in Dublin, Michael Smurfit, the owner of the K Club, will retain 9.5 per cent following the flotation after cashing in £2.1 million of stock. Mr Desmond, who backed GAN from the start, cashed in some £500,000 and will hold a 2.2 per cent stake.

Mr Smurfit Jnr, whose father Dermot Smurfit chairs the paper company Powerflute, will be the largest shareholder with a stake of more than 13 per cent.

Other shareholders include Betfair founder Andrew Black, who owns 9.5 per cent, and Tony Smurfit, the chief operating officer of Smurfit Kappa, who owns 8.5 per cent.

GAN, which is headquartered in London with more than 70 staff, supplies online casino games in regulated markets throughout Europe.

The “big play”, according to Mr Smurfit Jnr, is in the US where some states are starting to legalise online gambling.

In partnership with Betfair, GAN recently obtained a licence to develop online casino games for the Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Plaza casinos in Atlantic City. It also has a similar contract for a Foxwood casino on a Native American reservation in Connecticut.

“This is a massive milestone for the Smurfit family. I was asked more than 10 years ago to help build a new company that would take care of the next generation, and I believe we’ve done that,” said Mr Smurfit Jnr.