Amaya's former CEO makes $6.7bn bid for the company

Amaya, a Canadian online gambling company, has received a take-over offer from its former chief executive David Baazov valued at $6.7bn, according to reports.

The offer for the group, which owns Pokerstars and Full Tilt websites, comes shortly after merger talks with British bookmaker William Hill fell through.

Baazov is offering C$24 per share for the Quebec based company adding a premium of 30.9% to the company’s Friday close of around C$18.34. The company’s US listed shares were up 16.9% at $15.90 in pre-market trading.

The former CEO said he made the offer on behalf of an upcoming entity led by him, which has four funds committing $3.65bn to back it up.

The company said it would pay about $200m of the $400m deferred purchase price for its acquisition of the Rational Group in 2014. The new entity will set aside $200m until its deal with Amaya goes through and if the deferred payment is due before the deal closes the entity will release the funds in advance.

The group said it would consider Baazov’s offer but added that there was no assurance of a deal.

Baazov, who already owns 17.2% of the company, previously offered to take it private in February.

However, two months later he was charged with insider trading by Quebec’s securities regulator after an investigation into Baazov and other executives in 2014 for trading in the company’s stock before the company’s $4.9bn takeover of PokerStars owner Rational Group.

He resigned as chief executive in August to deal with the charges but remains on the board.

British bookmaker William Hill and Amaya abandoned talks over a £4.6bn merger in October after William Hill’s largest investor Parvus Asset Management said it opposed the plan.

The company reported a better than expected third quarter profit as customer registrations increased by 1.9m to about 105.5m in the quarter.

The group’s net income from continuing operations was $12.5m or 6 cents per share compared with a loss of $34.4m or 26 cents per share a year earlier.

Revenues for the three months ended September 30 rose 5% year on year to $270.9m, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by 14% to $123.1m.