Deal Brings Gala Day For County Bingo
The family of late gaming and leisure tycoon Thomas Paulo senior is tens of millions of pounds richer this week after selling the 10-strong County bingo hall chain to giant rival Gala Group.
The £64m deal swells Gala's Scottish presence to 30 clubs, with the additions nearly all sited in and around Glasgow. All 10 sites will be rebranded as Gala bingo halls and refurbished, a Gala spokesman said.
Until his death last July, at the age of 71, the secretive Tom Paulo senior ran Airdrie-based County Properties and Developments, which is also believed to own a giant 10-pin bowling centre at Finnieston, Glasgow. His son Thomas Paulo junior, 50, remained on the board as a director and is understood to have assumed ownership of his father's majority stake.
A source close to the deal said the family had lost its appetite for the bingo business upon the elder Paolo's death and had decided to sell up.
County Properties said yesterday that management would be "locked in meetings" for most of this week. No one at the company responded to a request for comment.
The County bingo halls sold to Gala are located at: Coatbridge; Glenrothes; Motherwell; Cumbernauld; Glasgow Pollock; Glasgow Maryhill; Airdrie; Port Glasgow; Paisley; and Glasgow Govan.
Paulo senior was once a major player among Glasgow's nightlife entrepreneurs. In the 1980s, he acquired what was previously the famous Locarno ballroom in Sauchiehall Street from Mecca Group, which was rebranded as the "superdisco" Zanzibar. He later moved one of Glasgow's best-known nightlife landmarks, the Berkeley Casino, into the same building. The company has also operated 10-pin bowling centres at Motherwell and Scarborough, together with public houses.
Paulo has featured among the top 100 Scots in the Sunday Times 'rich list', with a fortune estimated at more than £43m. His legacy was a highly successful family business whose profit margin has been consistently impressive.
County posted a pre-tax profit of £3.9m in the year to March 27, 2005, down from £4.9m in 2004. Last year's bullish trading surplus came despite the £2.1m writedown of a 25% investment in the debt-laden Carnoustie Golf Course Hotel & Resort.
The four-star resort, where suites cost up to £975 a night, reported another huge trading loss in 2005 and a further increase in its Bank of Scotland overdraft, to £10.5m.
Colourful owner Michael Johnston was forced to resign as a director of the resort's holding company following sequestration by the Court of Session in July, where a petition was lodged by HM Revenue & Customs.
The future of the Carnoustie resort remains uncertain, with the Open Championship due to return to the Angus links next year.
Gala, the UK's largest bingo operator and a leading casinos group, has been expanding rapidly in a bid to capitalise on the recent round of deregulation under the UK's gambling act.
The company, which is controlled by private equity houses Candover, Cinven and Permira, bought bookmaker Coral Eurobet last October for £2.2bn, creating Europe's largest integrated betting and gaming operation.
