|
UK
Casino Times
> Casino
News
10 January 2006
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.
Related pages:
PartyGaming
Float Boosts Gala's Listing
Plan
Parlay
Entertainment Announces The Launch Of Yahoo!
Bingo
Also see:
UK
Online Casinos
Reviews of the leading, approved UK online casinos. Includes
details of the free money welcome bonuses offered to new
players by the online casinos.
Online
Casinos Guide
New to online casinos? We take you through the process in a
friendly, easy-going way.
CasinoTimes.co.uk
is updated every day with the latest online casino and
gambling news.
Click
Here
to bookmark us and check us out daily!
Return
to UK Casino News index
|
