Ladbrokes and Gala Coral are two top betting firms in the United Kingdom. It was recently announced that both firms have now announced a new deal which will create one gambling giant as the two companies merge. With the merger, Gala Coral and Ladbrokes will create the largest bookmaker in the United Kingdom with a value of £2.3bn.
It has been at least two decades since the two companies had begun talks of merging and now the deal has finally come to pass. The merger will see the company offering almost 4,000 betting shops and will easily be able to move past William Hill as the largest bookmaker in Britain. The new group will be called Ladbrokes Coral and will have 30,000 with a listing on the London stock exchange, as both brands stay on the high street.
Andy Hornby has been hired as the Chief Operating Officer of Ladbrokes Coral and should earn a large bonus for his new role in the company. After shareholders pressured the company, Hornby will not be holding a position on the board of the new company.
Hornby was formally involved with HBOS, with the parliamentary commission condemning the CEO based on banking standards from 2013. Mistakes were made and the bank ended up failing miserably, which led to the bosses of both Gala Coral and Ladbrokes having concerns over Hornsby being appointed to his new position within the merged company.
Ladbrokes is hoping the new deal with Gala Coral will help with online offerings that the company, by themselves, have struggled with. New shares will be issued to shareholders of Coral by Ladbrokes which will represent 48.25% of the company. Ladbrokes shareholders will have 51.75% of the company.
It was just last month that talks of the merger was made public and the deal is now in action. The revenues of the new group will be £2.1bn with £392m in underlying profits.