Operator News
Spain – Hedge funds continue to circle €2bn Cirsa ahead of non-binding bids
By Phil - 18 February 2018
North American hedge fund giants including the Advent International, Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management are among the investors believed to be looking at a potential €2bn takeover of Spanish gaming giant Cirsa.
Spanish casino and bingo-hall operator Cirsa, owned by billionaire Manuel Lao Hernandez, is expecting non-binding bids to be made over the course of this next week having confirmed last week that it had appointed financial consultant Lazard to ‘study options for the future’ which could include a total or partial sale or a floatation on the stock market.
Founded in 1978 and based in the Catalan city of Terrassa, just outside of Barcelona, Cirsa owns a staggering 134 casinos, more than 41,500 recreational machines, 68 bingo halls, 171 arcades, 2,000 sports betting outlets and more than 3,000 lottery terminals in Spain, Italy and in Latin America.
Cirsa generates an annual revenue of roughly €1.6bn and earnings of over €400m. The company’s most recent quarterly results showed record earnings of €108m in the three months ending, September 30.
In its more recent set of results, Cirsa’s third quarter operating profit reached €108.2m, the highest result achieved by the company in a single quarter, improving by seven per cent when compared to July to September 2016. Revenues generated by the company during the first nine months of 2017 reached € 1,281.6m, with year-on-year growth of 7.7 per cent. In a statement, Cirsa emphasised that with these figures it had consolidated its continued run of growth, which has already reached 45 consecutive quarters.
Last year the company bought 17 Novomatic gaming halls in Peru and opened a new gaming hall in Colombia, the incorporation of a new casino in the Costa Rican city of Puntarenas and another in the Panamanian town of Villa Zaita. It has recently bid on new casino projects in Andorra and in Granada.
