Furiously integrating vertically, Eidos Plc, which already bought three games companies to complement its multimedia hardware side, has now reached definitive agreement for the acquisition of troubled games distributor CentreGold Plc. It will pay 17.2m British pounds in shares for the Birmingham company, and is making a 23.8m pounds rights issue to fund the deal. The offer values each CentreGold share at about 40 pence, against a price in the market of 37 pence ahead of the deal. It values CentreGold at 17.2m pounds- a far cry from the 1993 valuation on flotation, when the shares were placed at 125 pence and soared to 167 pence in first day trading. It looks like a done deal, because Eidos says it has received irrevocable undertakings to accept from 48.75% of the shares out. The rights issue is of up to 3.54m new shares on a 12 for 25 basis, at 675 pence per stock unit, payable in two installments. CentreGold Plc accompanied the above news yesterday with figures showing a first half pre-tax loss of 1m pounds on turnover that slipped 4% to 39.3m pounds.
