PARTYGAMING, the internet poker company, has shrugged off the controversy surrounding its stock market flotation and is set to price its shares comfortably within the indicative range set last week.

The share placing has been covered more than three times during the bookbuilding process and its adviser, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, will exercise its right to sell an extra tranche of shares under a so-called over-allotment option.

It is understood that the shares will be priced at between 115p and 120p against an indicative range of 111p-127p, although a final figure will only be decided at a board meeting on Sunday, ahead of conditional trading on Monday. That would value the company at between £4.6 billion and £4.8 billion.

The new range, which would propel PartyGaming into the FTSE 100, is below original expectations of more than £5 billion but is still considered an excellent result given the media frenzy surrounding the flotation.

The issues raised during the process have ranged from the dubious legality of online gambling in the US, PartyGaming’s biggest market, to the background of the group’s founder, Ruth Parasol, who made her first fortune in internet porn.

Some institutions that were approached during the roadshow are said to have been concerned at the huge amounts of money involved and the sustainability of the rapid growth of its core website, PartyPoker.com.

The four owners are selling 781.8 million shares, worth £900 million at the bottom end of the latest range, although the over-allotment option will mean that a further 115.3 million shares worth £133 million will also be sold.

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