888 Holdings Plc shares rose on the London Stock Exchange as the company announced a special dividend for the fifth consecutive year.
The dividend combined with the ordinary distribution leaves the stock yielding about 6.7 percent, almost double the average of the U.K. FTSE All-Share Index. The shares rose as much as 10 percent, Bloomberg News reported.
“There’s no point sitting on the cash,” Chief Executive Itai Frieberger told the news service. “If we do, we don’t get any value on that. We’re relatively small and we have enough to do what we want to do.”
Though 888 teamed with Rank Group Plc to make an unsuccessful takeover bid for bookmaker William Hill Plc last year, Frieberger said 888 has no immediate need for acquisitions.
“The industry is speed dating, but we don’t feel compelled to do a deal right now,” he said. “The results coming out of the business are so strong.”
