* Betting firm sells 18.2 mln existing and new shares
* Sales gives firm 223.6 mln euro market capitalisation
* Marks partial exit of owner, funds for lottery unit
* P/E seen at 13.5, in line with sector average
(Adds analyst, sector comparison, note on Betfair)
PRAGUE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Czech betting group Fortuna
<FOREsp.PR> said it has raised 78.3 million euros ($109 million)
in an initial public offering that was nearly twice
oversubscribed.
The company sold 18.2 million shares, including 2 million
new shares, at an offer price of 4.3 euros per share and just
below the maximum price of 4.5 euros in the IPO, it said in a
statement, confirming an earlier Reuters story. []
Fortuna, active in the Czech, Polish, Slovak and Hungarian
markets, will use part of the money to launch a Czech lottery
unit. The IPO marks a partial exit for owner Penta Investments,
a Czech-Slovak financial group. []
The volume sold gives a 35 percent free float, and starts
Fortuna off with a market capitalisation of 223.6 million euros.
"This was a typical relatively successful emission," said
Ondrej Moravansky, an analyst at brokerage Cyrrus based in Brno.
"There is a pretty attractive dividend yield of some 5
percent which is similar to telecommunication companies and
could be very interesting for retail investors," he said.
"Moreover the Fortuna brand is pretty well-known among
people and its shares may attract attention of people who bet."
Moravansky estimated Fortuna traded at around 13.5 times
2010 forecast earnings, which he said was broadly in line with
the average of some 10 European betting companies which he
calculated at 13.3.
Fortuna shares rose more than 5 percent at the start of
conditional trading in Prague.
The company said 10 percent of the offer will go to retail
investors. Regular tradine in Prague will launch on Oct 27 and
in Warsaw <> on Oct 28.
Fortuna will be the first IPO in Prague since miner New
World Resources <NWRSsp.PR> sold shares in May 2008.
The offer was run by UniCredit <CRDI.MI> and Erste Group
Bank <ERST.VI>.
Fortuna 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, it booked 338 million euros in bets and made a net
profit of 16.9 million.
The owner of the world's largest internet betting exchange
Betfair <BETF.L> raised at least 211 million pounds <$333
million) from an initial public offering in London on Friday.
[]
(Reporting by Jason Hovet and Jana Mlcochova; Editing by Greg
Mahlich, Mike Nesbit)
($1=.7181 euros)
