Daniel Och, Och-Ziff Capital Management Initiate Passive Stake in 500 Com Ltd. (WBAI)

Daniel S. Och‘s Och-Ziff Capital Management has initiated a position in China-based 500 Com Ltd. (NYSE:WBAI). A new filing with the SEC revealed OZ holding 1.5 million class A shares of the company, which represent 2.6% of the outstanding stock. The stake is passive by nature. The company recently went public on New York Stock Exchange.

Under the terms of the IPO, 500 Com Ltd. (NYSE:WBAI) offered around 5.8 million American Depositary Shares, which represent 10 Class A shares each. The price of the offering amounted to $13.00 per ADS. Since the company’s shares began trading publicly, the stock price increased slightly by some 1.7%.

500 Com Ltd. (NYSE:WBAI) is a provider of online sports lottery services in China. According to the prospectus filed with the SEC, the company had the largest market share in the first half of the year, and the second largest in 2012, in terms of purchase amount of sports lottery products. The company plans to solidify its position on the Chinese market, through strengthening its brand, developing an integrated online service platform, and engage in building of mobile services, among other strategies. For the first nine months of the year, the company disclosed revenues worth $26.7 million. Net income amounted to $3.4 million, equal to $0.01 per share.

The largest stake in Oz’s equity portfolio is represented by Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), in which the fund holds 7.3 million shares, worth $478.6 million. In Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO), the fund holds a $459.3 million stake, which amasses nearly 5.0 million shares. Oz also reported owning 14.4 million shares of Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), the value of the stake amounting to $450.9 million.

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Och’s fund also reported initiating a passive position in Re/Max Holdings Inc (NYSE:RMAX), in which it had acquired 1.0 million shares, equal to some 8.6% of the company’s common stock.

Disclosure: none

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