An investment vehicle which began building a stake in the London-listed gambling software group Playtech earlier this year is weighing plans for a £3bn takeover of the company.
Sky News has learnt that Gopher Investments is working with bankers at Rothschild on an offer that would trump a recommended bid announced last month from Aristocrat Leisure, an Australian company.
City sources said on Sunday that Gopher’s deliberations were not guaranteed to lead to a formal offer, but that it was looking “seriously” at doing so.
Gopher is expected to issue a statement confirming its interest in bidding for the whole of Playtech on Monday morning.
A bidding war for Playtech would be the latest development in a frenzied year of corporate deal-making in the global gambling industry.
Playtech, which has a market value of close to £2.2bn, saw its shares surge in October when it announced that its board was endorsing a…
