December 03, 2007

Unibet acquires Maria Invest bingo business for £54m

Unibet has agreed to acquire the bingo business of Maria Invest for SEK705m (£54m) as it looks to broaden its offering in the Nordic region.

Unibet hopes to finance the acquisition with either bank debt or through money raised in the bond market. Only last we4ek the company announced it had appointed Swedish financial firm Ohman Fondkommission to advise on possible sources of capital of up to €100m.

The deal will see Unibet acquire several domain names including bingo.se and mariabingo.com. The company said the acquisition offered significant growth potential in the key female demographic.

In the first nine months of the year, Maria Invest had a total income of SEK77m and hit an operating profit of SEK26m. Total income in the third quarter of this year stood at SEK30m compared to SEK6.5m in the same period last year. As of the end of the third quarter, Maria Invest had 176,361 registered customers and 11,659 active over the past three months.

Unibet said it hoped the acqusition would be completed before the end of the year.