Rank Backs Away from Deal with Gala Coral

Mar 29, 2012
Rank Backs Away from Deal with Gala Coral
Back in January, the Rank Group, owner of Grosvenor Casinos, was in talks with Gala Coral over purchasing their casino business in a deal said to be worth £250k. The owner of Mecca Bingo has now backed away from the deal with Gala Coral which would have resulted in the largest casino operator in the UK.

Ian Burke, Rank Chief Executive, says that the suggested terms would not be valuable to their shareholders. Rank's focus will be appealing to a younger market with plans to launch 12 new G-Casino sites by 2015.

With the deal, Rank would have taken over Malaysia's Genting allowing Gala to put their energy into Gala Bingo and Coral bookmaking operations.

Since a debt restructuring back in 2010, there was thought to be a possibility that Gala Coral would sell bringing about speculation that Rank would considering buying their casino business. When approached, Gala Coral indicated to Rank that the business was not for sale.

A Gala Coral spokesperson said, "Our casino business was not for sale when Rank made an unsolicited approach. Now that it is clear that a transaction on terms acceptable to our shareholders cannot be concluded, we are very happy to continue to drive growth from our casinos which are performing very strongly."
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