By Matteo Castia

Shares in Flutter Entertainment PLC rose Thursday after the company said it has entered into a conditional agreement to buy the entire 37.2% interest in betting company FanDuel Inc., which is currently held by Fastball Holdings LLC for $4.18 billion.

Shares at 1250 GMT hiked GBP9.40, or 7.3%, at GBP143.05.

The Dublin-based sports-betting and gambling group said it will pay $2.01 billion in cash and issue 11.7 million new Flutter ordinary shares to Fastball.

The cash part of the consideration will be funded through resources on balance sheet and an equity placing which aims to raise 1.10 billion pounds ($1.47 billion) by way of nonpre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares through an accelerated book-build.

"Upon completion of the transaction, the group will own 95% of FanDuel's issued share capital, with the remaining 5% continuing to be held by its existing co-shareholder Boyd Interactive Gaming LLC," Flutter said. The deal will materially enhance its exposure to the U.S. market, it added.

Write to Matteo Castia at matteo.castia@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2020 08:26 ET (13:26 GMT)