* Max share price set at 4.5 euros
* Gives mkt value of up to 234 million euros
* To use proceeds from sale to launch lottery unit
* To pay 70-100 pct of net profit in dividends
(Adds details from news conference, analyst, background)
By Jan Korselt and Jana Mlcochova
PRAGUE, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Czech betting company Fortuna
Entertainment Group is seeking up to 81.9 million euros ($114.4
million) in its initial public share offering and will use
proceeds from the sale to launch a lottery unit.
Fortuna will be one of the rare entries to the Prague Stock
Exchange, which last saw an IPO in May 2008 when coal miner NWR
<NWRSsp.PR> joined the market. It will also offer its shares in
Warsaw.
Fortuna set a maximum price of 4.5 euros for shares in the
IPO, it said on Monday, giving it a capitalisation of up to 234
million euros ($326.3 million) and making it the 10th largest of
the fifteen listings on the Prague bourse's main PX index <>.
The betting company, owned by Czech-Slovak financial group
Penta Investments and specialising in fixed-odds betting, said
it would offer up to 35 percent of all outstanding shares,
including a "greenshoe" option.
It proposed to pay 70 percent to 100 percent of its net
profit in dividends.
"I think it is an interesting company because this sector is
not represented on central Europe's bourses, it is a
well-established brand with stabile finances and an interesting
dividend yield," said Milan Lavicka, an analyst at Czech
brokerage house Atlantik FT.
Fortuna said it would offer a total of up to 15.83 million
shares, with up to 2 million newly issued shares and 13.83
existing. The offer period starts on Monday and will last until
Oct. 21, it said.
Fortuna said it would use the proceeds from the sale of new
shares to launch a lottery project in the Czech Republic as
announced last week. []
In a news conference Fortuna Chief Executive Jiri Bunda said
he expected to make the lottery business profitable within three
years and targeted a 20 percent market share in the Czech
Republic.
Fortuna also reported an 11 percent rise in earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 11.6
million euros in the first half of the year. The company took
bets worth 191.6 million euros in that time, up 12 percent from
the year before.
In 2009, Fortuna booked 338 million euros in bets and made a
net profit of 16.9 million. It holds a 30 percent market share
in its main market, the Czech Republic.
The offer price and the allotment is expected to be
announced on Oct. 22, when conditional trading on the Prague
Stock Exchange should start. Regular trading in Prague should
start on Oct. 27 and in Warsaw on Oct. 28.
(Additional reporting by Robert Mueller; Editing by Hans Peters
and David Holmes)
($1=.7172 Euro)
