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UK
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17 May 2005
William Hill Aims To Jockey Into
First Position
William
Hill entered the final straight in the race to overtake
Ladbrokes as Britain's biggest bookmaker yesterday after
unveiling an agreed £504 million deal to buy Stanley
Leisure's betting shops.
The deal will leave Coral
Eurobet languishing in third place, although Vaughan
Ashdown, Coral's chief executive, refused to rule out a
counterbid last night. "We will make our intentions clear
when we feel it necessary," he said.
But Bob Wiper, Stanley
Leisure’' chief executive, said that William Hill was
offering a full price and had provided assurances over the
future of Stanleybet staff. "It would take something
monumental to shift our mindset," he said.
The deal has forced
William Hill to cancel plans to return £453 million to
shareholders. But David Harding, the chief executive, said
that he expected the enlarged group to generate surplus cash
again in the future.
Mr Harding said that he
was confident the Office of Fair Trading would be satisfied
by the group's plan to sell about 30 shops to avoid local
monopoly issues.
William Hill, which is
acquiring 624 shops in the UK and the Irish Republic, plans
to rebrand the entire Stanleybet estate as part of a
£30 million program over three years. Fees and
integration costs will add another £20 million, offset
by at least £13 million of annual synergies.
Mr Harding said that part
of the rationale of the transaction was to stop Coral from
buying it. "It was a question of being number one or number
three," he said.
The deal, which is
expected to complete in June, will let Stanley Leisure
return more than £300 million to investors while
reinforcing its position as the biggest UK casino
operator.
Related pages:
William
Hill Online Casino
Lucky
Winners Hit Stanley Leisure Profits
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