Bookmaker opens books

Veteran bookmaker Mark Read has appointed VCM Global and London-based Torch Partners Corporate Finance to help sell all or part of his corporate bookmaking company International All Sports.

The company announced last September that local and international gaming companies had expressed interest in buying all or part of IAS, and the flow of unsolicited approaches has continued since then.

Read owns 26.83 per cent of the business, while Sky City International, which has unsuccessfully sought bids for its Adelaide casino and cinema chains, owns a 6.81 per cent stake.

The company listed on the ASX in 1999 at $2 a share, but the stock is now trading at around 35c a share, giving it a market capitalisation of just $23 million.

VMC and Torch Partners have prepared an information memorandum that will be sent to the various parties that have expressed interest in the whole company, or certain assets.

VMC, a boutique advisory firm established by Allan Farrar in 2005, is handling Australian enquiries, while Torch Partners, an advisory firm headed by Hans Beck, the former country head of Deutsche Bank in Australia, will handle the overseas interest.

IAS encountered a trifecta of problems in 2006-07, including an $8.3 million settlement with the Commonwealth Bank over bets placed by a bank manager who had stolen money from the bank, a US crackdown on internet gambling that resulted in a $1.8 million write-off and an $800,000 forex hit.

Its latest accounts, released on Tuesday, revealed earnings from its Australian operations more than doubled to $7.5 million in the latest half, but showed continued problems with Canbet, the firm that got excluded from the US online gambling industry, which has instead had to refocus on other markets such soccer and racing products, and poker platforms in Asia

Canbet returned an operating loss of $4.1 million, which Read said was to be expected with a new business, though he also said its performance was disappointing and its business plan was being reviewed.

Other businesses within the organisation posted mixed results, with the hedging and proprietary trading arms, Global Sports Entertainment, Proprietary Trading and Ferncourt, recording a combined loss of $1.2 million and Austote, Read Rating and International Poker and Casino recording a combined loss of $400,000.