Amaya Gaming CEO Getting Very Serious About Privatization

Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov is very serious about his bid to take the gaming giant private. This week he hired the services of Barclays Capital Canada to advise him in the effort, according to a report by Reuters.
As with so much of Baazov’s ambitious bid to take over the biggest online gaming company on the planet, this latest move is still a bit shrouded in mystery. After all, it was just last week that he announced that both Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs to help with the project.
Today we know that Barclays has been hired to review the formal bid while Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are there in an advisory roll.
The addition of Barclays to the Amaya Gaming story is actually pretty interesting. That’s because they’ve been hired to review the bid but Baazov and other Amaya Gaming representatives have repeatedly said that there is currently no guarantee that Baazov or anyone else will even submit a bid.
That said, if there actually is a bid, it’s believed that it will be an offer to purchase every outstanding Amaya Gaming share for $21 a piece.
As of closing on Monday, the company’s stock was trading at $18.35 on the Canadian exchange. That’s actually down about $.35 from the previous day’s trading.
If Baazov can pull off a privatization bid he would no longer be beholden to shareholders and could take Amaya Gaming in any direction he wants. If he decides not to go through with the bid, he’s still managed to boost the company’s fortunes and stock prices.
Either scenario represents a big win for one of gaming’s biggest companies.