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By Jim Osborne
Milan, June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Snai SpA said it plans to open 300 Internet shops in Italy as the country's largest betting company pushes into online business, and is in talks with Omnitel Pronto Italia SpA to form a partnership with Italy's No.2 mobile telephone company.
Snai, which is also the country's largest racetrack operator, said the Internet shops, which will be run as franchises, will allow customers to shop online and pay for the goods in the store. The company plans a partnership with Omnitel to add to the fixed-line telephone services Snai is developing.
``As usual, they have a lot of projects on the go,'' said Monica Bosio, an analyst at ABN Amro who has a ``buy'' recommendation on the stock. ``The problem is to understand when they are going to be operational.''
Snai shares rose more than five fold in the past year as the company used the Internet and fiber-optic networks to offer betting by telephone and online and to produce 41 cable television channels. Snai then installed its technology into the 800 betting shops it's opened in Italy and which take two thirds of bets placed on horse racing and other sports in the country.
The company, based in the Tuscan town of Porcari, also wants to use its technology to break into the U.K. betting market, which Ughi said it worth at least 9.3 billion euros ($8.7 billion) a year.
Snai is close to an accord with Racing Data, a U.K. company that provides independent bookmakers in the U.K. with information, to install its computer systems into between 200 and 300 betting shops in the U.K. by the end of the year. They will be refurbished later and then re-branded as Snai outlets.
``My problem in the U.K is to get those first 300 shops,'' Ughi said. ``When the others see the benefits and the quality we offer, they will come to us.''
The 10-year-old company expects sales to rise 62 percent this year, to 270 billion lire, after a 46 percent gain in 1999. Other projects include building a 16-screen cinema complex in Milan, a children's museum on the site of the city's main racetrack and transforming its headquarters into a hotel.
Ughi said he expects to open 20 Internet shops by the end of the year and then 25 every month. Snai is in talks with Internet companies such as Jumpy SpA, a unit of Fininvest SpA, the holding company of Silvio Berlusconi; Kataweb SpA, owned by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso SpA; and Yahoo! Inc., the largest Web- navigation company, to form a joint online shopping site.
``These e-commerce outlets will also help us sell our telephone services, as many mobile telephone companies already do,'' said Snai Chairman Maurizio Ughi at a presentation in Milan. ``Internet should not just be a virtual network but also a real presence in town.''
Snai this month received a license to offer fixed-line telephone calls and Internet services in Italy. The company plans to invest 200 billion lire in the business by 2001, of which a quarter will be spent on advertising.
``This investment could be a bit heavy for Snai,'' said ABN Amro's Bosio. ``Over the long term, they may find they need a partner to help with the funding.''
Ughi said an alliance with Omnitel, a unit of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, which has more than 11 million mobile customers in Italy, would make sense because Omnitel lacks a fixed-line service. Snai is also thinking of taking a small stake in one of the groups of companies bidding for third-generation mobile telephone licenses in Italy.
``Even if we lose bids like this, people will still come to us for our services,'' Ughi said. ``We are the only company in Italy which develops betting software.''
Snai shares, the sixth-best performing on the Italian stock exchange this year, today rose 0.44 euro, or 1.6 percent, to 27.65 after earlier rising as high as 28.13 euros.
Milan, June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Snai SpA said it plans to open 300 Internet shops in Italy as the country's largest betting company pushes into online business, and is in talks with Omnitel Pronto Italia SpA to form a partnership with Italy's No.2 mobile telephone company.
Snai, which is also the country's largest racetrack operator, said the Internet shops, which will be run as franchises, will allow customers to shop online and pay for the goods in the store. The company plans a partnership with Omnitel to add to the fixed-line telephone services Snai is developing.
``As usual, they have a lot of projects on the go,'' said Monica Bosio, an analyst at ABN Amro who has a ``buy'' recommendation on the stock. ``The problem is to understand when they are going to be operational.''
Snai shares rose more than five fold in the past year as the company used the Internet and fiber-optic networks to offer betting by telephone and online and to produce 41 cable television channels. Snai then installed its technology into the 800 betting shops it's opened in Italy and which take two thirds of bets placed on horse racing and other sports in the country.
The company, based in the Tuscan town of Porcari, also wants to use its technology to break into the U.K. betting market, which Ughi said it worth at least 9.3 billion euros ($8.7 billion) a year.
Snai is close to an accord with Racing Data, a U.K. company that provides independent bookmakers in the U.K. with information, to install its computer systems into between 200 and 300 betting shops in the U.K. by the end of the year. They will be refurbished later and then re-branded as Snai outlets.
``My problem in the U.K is to get those first 300 shops,'' Ughi said. ``When the others see the benefits and the quality we offer, they will come to us.''
The 10-year-old company expects sales to rise 62 percent this year, to 270 billion lire, after a 46 percent gain in 1999. Other projects include building a 16-screen cinema complex in Milan, a children's museum on the site of the city's main racetrack and transforming its headquarters into a hotel.
Ughi said he expects to open 20 Internet shops by the end of the year and then 25 every month. Snai is in talks with Internet companies such as Jumpy SpA, a unit of Fininvest SpA, the holding company of Silvio Berlusconi; Kataweb SpA, owned by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso SpA; and Yahoo! Inc., the largest Web- navigation company, to form a joint online shopping site.
``These e-commerce outlets will also help us sell our telephone services, as many mobile telephone companies already do,'' said Snai Chairman Maurizio Ughi at a presentation in Milan. ``Internet should not just be a virtual network but also a real presence in town.''
Snai this month received a license to offer fixed-line telephone calls and Internet services in Italy. The company plans to invest 200 billion lire in the business by 2001, of which a quarter will be spent on advertising.
``This investment could be a bit heavy for Snai,'' said ABN Amro's Bosio. ``Over the long term, they may find they need a partner to help with the funding.''
Ughi said an alliance with Omnitel, a unit of Vodafone AirTouch Plc, which has more than 11 million mobile customers in Italy, would make sense because Omnitel lacks a fixed-line service. Snai is also thinking of taking a small stake in one of the groups of companies bidding for third-generation mobile telephone licenses in Italy.
``Even if we lose bids like this, people will still come to us for our services,'' Ughi said. ``We are the only company in Italy which develops betting software.''
Snai shares, the sixth-best performing on the Italian stock exchange this year, today rose 0.44 euro, or 1.6 percent, to 27.65 after earlier rising as high as 28.13 euros.