By Dasha Afanasieva
LONDON (Reuters) - The majority owner of Britain's Sky Bet, CVC, has chosen investment banks Citi (N:C), Goldman Sachs (N:GS) and Barclays (L:BARC) to lead an initial public offering of the online betting company, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Numis (L:NUM) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) will act as joint bookrunners for the planned listing, which comes amid an expected clampdown on gambling machines in British betting shops that may make Sky Bet, which is online-only, relatively more attractive.
CVC (CVC.UL), Citi, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Numis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, Reuters reported Rothschild had been hired to examine a listing for the company, which was formed in 2001 and is headquartered in Leeds.
Private equity firm CVC acquired an 80 percent stake in the betting business from pay-television operator Sky (L:SKYB) just over three years ago in a deal that at the time valued it at 800 million pounds.
In the year ended June 2017, Sky Bet's revenue increased to 516 million pounds ($715.5 million) from 374 million pounds in the previous period. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 38 percent to 146 million pounds.