Two Hong Kong investment funds have reportedly agreed to boost their financial support for controversial entrepreneur David Baazov in his bid to privatize gaming company Amaya, owner of online poker site PokerStars.
According to Bloomberg, Baazov – who founded Amaya in 2014 and was behind the company’s purchase of PokerStars and Full Tilt soon after – submitted a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday naming Dubai’s KBC Aldini Capital as a backer alongside Hong Kong’s Head and Shoulders Global Investment Fund SPC and Goldenway Capital SPC.
KBC has since backed out claiming it had not consented to the deal, but both Head and Shoulders and Goldenway have now promised to invest further. Baazov is after US$4.1 billion to fund his US$6.7 billion deal for Amaya.
Baazov was forced to resign as Amaya CEO in August after being charged with insider trading in the wake of a deal to expand PokerStars’ offerings to casino games and sports betting. He has also enraged many of the site’s long-time poker players who believe the revised bonus structures he has implemented have them worse off.
