South Korea’s Netmarble Games among bidders for Caesars Interactive’s Playtika

South Korea’s Netmarble Games Corp is making a play to acquire social casino operator Playtika from casino giant Caesars Entertainment.

On Tuesday, Korean business media outlet Pulse News reported that Netmarble, the mobile game unit of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, had submitted a letter of intent to purchase Playtika. Netmarble is reportedly lining up financing for the next round of bids scheduled for Thursday.

Korea Economic Daily later reported that Netmarble was prepared to pay between KRW 4t-5t (US $3.4b-$4.3b) and that it was hoping to raise KRW 3t from South Korean institutional investors. Pulse claimed the Israeli-based Playtika would name a preferred bidder this month.

In May, reports surfaced that Caesars was mulling a sale of Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE), which includes Playtika, a real-money online gambling operation and the World Series of Poker brand. The reports claimed the companies expressing interest in CIE had valued the company at over $4b.