UK 08:24 Saturday, 26 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
It is not a bad start to the week when a holding gets bid for. If I get one bid a year for one of my holdings then I am lucky, because trying to predict a bid is somewhere between difficult and impossible (which is a bit of a hassle given the market factors in a potential future scenario about 99 times more often than there actually is a bid). Anyhow, having made Playtech (PTEC) one of my tips of the year in late 2019, I doubled up my position during the COVID-19 uncertainties a few months later. All a bit embarrassing...but such is the investment world. Anyhow, I have kept my expanded position since and was still seeing some potential for future appreciation as noted here last month. Good bid news this morning then for the gambling software development company and for me!
Back in May I observed that I was ‘still holding onto my profitable position’ in Playtech (PTEC) the gambling software development company. Today it is less profitable than it was back then as over recent weeks the shares have fallen back to levels last seen in November last year. Thankfully I doubled up my holding sixteen months or so ago when almost everything was perceived a bit more cautiously. Anyhow back in May, whilst observing firm multiples and a bit of debt, I did also observe that its ‘online growth has remained very strong in 2021’ and hence I still hoped that Playtech shares had ‘the scope to return to around the six quid level again’. Well despite the romp in Entain (ENT) shares over the last couple of years working out very well, Playtech has been a lot duller. Since May there have been a couple of interesting further announcements too.
I know there are updates today from names such as Marks and Spencer (MKS) observing that it achieved ‘profit before tax & adjusting items of £41.6m’, whilst SSE plc (SSE) confirmed the payment of an 81p per share dividend for the year, slightly up on last year. Such excitement...not. Far more interesting for me this morning is considering updates from Playtech (PTEC) – on which I concluded a couple of months that I was ‘still holding onto my profitable position’ in the gambling software development company. So what did the Playtech management say across today’s two updates?
