CIRSA has announced its plans to float on multiples Spanish stock exchanges in a move the business hopes will raise an initial €400m (£342m).
Currently owned by Blackstone, CIRSA operates land-based and online gaming across Latam, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa.
Under its plans for its IPO, CIRSA stated it intends to apply for its shares to be admitted to trading on the Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia stock exchanges.
It is expected the IPO will raise €400m, with net proceeds estimated to come in at €375m.
CIRSA said the capital would be used to “accelerate the company’s proven growth strategy and repay existing debt”.
A secondary sale has also been slated, which is hoped to raise a further €60m. Those monies will be used to settle taxes and other expenses as part of a management restructure.
For full-year 2024, CIRSA net operating revenue rose 8% year on year (YoY) to €2.2bn, while EBITDA jumped 11% to €699m.
The firm’s land-based casino arm accounted for 58% of EBITDA last year, with CIRSA operating 451 casinos and gaming halls in eight countries.
CIRSA’s Spanish slot machine network, placed across more than 16,000 sites in the country, represented 27% of 2024 EBITDA. The Italian slot machine entity took up 4% of EBITDA.
The rapidly growing online betting and gaming arm, which includes brands such as Sportium and Apuesta Total, made up the remaining 12% of EBITDA.
CIRSA said it has more than 2.1 million active users for its online arm across Spain, Italy, Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Portugal.
For Q1 2025, online net operating revenue accounted for 22.5% of the group’s total, compared to 16.5% in Q1 2024.
CIRSA said: “The company believes that [online] has the greatest growth prospects due to the structurally underpenetrated online gaming market in Latin America, which is expected to achieve outsized growth, coupled with the possibility of replicating CIRSA’s successful omnichannel model in existing and selected new online markets in the region.”
Looking ahead post-IPO, CIRSA said it would be focusing on three core pillars for growth: omnichannel, land-based casino expansion and M&A.
On land-based casinos, the business said growth markets such as Latam and Morocco were of keen interest.
In terms of M&A, CIRSA added that it had “identified a significant pipeline of potential future acquisitions”.
The operator also detailed its future financial targets as a publicly listed entity, with 2025 net operating revenue to range between €2.28bn and €2.33bn, with mid-20% growth in online alone.
EBTDA for 2025 is expected to hit between €740m and €750m, while net leverage is anticipated to be between 2x and 2.5x post-IPO.
On M&A, CIRSA said it expects to have the ability to invest with organic cash flow generation between €400m and €500m over the next two years.
Joaquim Agut, CIRSA executive chair, remarked: “Today’s announcement is a significant milestone in the history of this company, founded in Terrassa, [Spain] in 1978, which has built an extraordinary performance track record with a presence in 11 countries, always operating exclusively in markets where gambling is regulated.
“Over the past 20 years, CIRSA has accelerated its international expansion by acquiring leading companies and consolidating a position of leadership in the markets in which it operates.
“Our growth was further accelerated by our transformative partnership with Blackstone in 2018, which has been instrumental to our success.”
Antonio Hostench, CIRSA CEO, added: “We are an innovative company that seamlessly integrates both physical and online channels.
“Today, we are taking a defining step to continue writing another page in this extraordinary history of growth by announcing our intention to go public, which will provide us with the opportunity to undertake new projects and continue to consolidate our leadership in the sector.”
Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Europe will act as joint global coordinators for the process.
The post CIRSA reveals IPO plans with hopes to raise €400m first appeared on EGR Intel.
Sportium and Apuesta Total parent company adds that it anticipates having a €500m M&A war chest at its disposal, as it lays out proposal to list on multiple Spanish stock exchanges
The post CIRSA reveals IPO plans with hopes to raise €400m first appeared on EGR Intel.