GGRAsia – Gaming biz Palasino to net US$2mln in share overallotment

Gaming biz Palasino to net US$2mln in share overallotment

Apr 22, 2024 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Palasino Holdings Ltd, a gaming and leisure entity that listed in Hong Kong in March after flagging plans for an initial public offering (IPO), has seen the partial exercise of an overallotment option for its shares, that will generate for it net proceeds of HKD15.3 million (nearly US$2.0 million), according to a Monday filing.

The overallotment – transacted on Friday – represented 7.69 percent of the total number of Palasino Holding’s offer shares initially available under the global offering.

Palasino Holdings – which runs three land-based casinos in the Czech Republic and hotels in Germany and Austria – is a spin-off from Hong Kong-listed property developer Far East Consortium International Ltd. The latter is itself an investor in the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane complex in Queensland, Australia. That complex will have within it a casino run by The Star Entertainment Group Ltd.

The company had said in its IPO prospectus and the Monday filing, that it intended to apply the net proceeds from the overallottment “on a pro rata basis”, for steps including expanding gaming business in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in central Europe and other markets.

Palasino Holdings is issuing 6.59 million new shares under its overallotment, and a selling shareholder in the exercise – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Far East Consortium – is selling nearly 4.4 million sale shares.

The new shares are at HKD2.60 per offer share – i.e., the pricing of the global offering. Listing of, and dealing in, the overallotment shares were due to start on Tuesday, stated Monday’s filing.

Palasino Holdings additionally has a licence issued by the Malta Gaming Authority that allows the company to run online gaming business in that jurisdiction, according to the IPO prospectus.