The house hasn’t won: Rank Group set to release flat sales days after abandoning William Hill bid with 888 Holdings
Grosvenor Casinos operator Rank Group is expected to post flat sales growth this week, marking more disappointing news days after it walked away from a takeover bid for William Hill.
Analysts expect sales to rise by 0.64 per cent to £756.5m at the Mecca Bingo owner in the year ended 30 June, according to a Reuters consensus estimate, up from £751.7m in 2015.
Earnings per share are expected to increase five per cent to 15.6p, up from 14.9p last year.
The company said it expects its results to remain within management expectations.
Rank will announce its full-year results on Tuesday after it pushed the release back by five days last week.
It delayed its results on Monday due to the then-ongoing joint offer with 888 Holdings for William Hill, which would have created the largest gambling group in the UK market if successful.
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However, the groups walked away from the deal on Thursday, saying it had "not been possible to meaningfully engage with the board of William Hill over the takeover".
Rank and 888 had proposed a three-way tie-up in which the two companies would merge to form a new company called Bidco and contemporaneously acquire William Hill.
They claimed the three-way tie-up would free up at least £100m in cost savings and increased marketing effectiveness.
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But the bookmaker turned down two offers from the Rank and 888 consortium, the first of which placed a 364p per share and a second, higher offer submitted by the groups which upped the stock element of the deal and came in at 394p per share.
Rank's stock closed up 0.6 per cent on Friday at 223p.
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The gambling giant owns more than 50 Grosvenor Casinos in the UK and two in Belgium, as well as almost 90 Mecca Bingo clubs in the UK.
In the 19 weeks to 8 May, total revenue rose by two per cent, lifted by a three per cent rise in sales at Grosvenor Casinos but tempered by a one per cent fall in Mecca Bingo turnover.