Ladbrokes and Coral agree £2.3bn merger
News out this morning that after talks, Coral and Ladbrokes will go ahead with their merger.
To fund the deal Ladbrokes will offer 93 million new shares to investors, representing 10% of the company. Ladbrokes will issue new ordinary shares to existing Coral shareholders representing 48.25% of the enlarged company. Existing Ladbrokes shareholders will then own 51.75% of the enlarged company.
The move will mean that the new company will be bigger than the current incumbent William Hill. In terms of high street presence, Ladbrokes’ have 2,100 shops and Coral’s 1,845. Coral seem to have been ahead of things on the digital front, so it will be interesting to see how that develops.
I guess there will be cuts one way or the other get efficiency out of the merger. But the shear size and power of the new company should benefit them in a number of ways. I’d imagine existing players in the market will be a bit rattled that the merger is going ahead. Even accounting for the difficulties of mergers, a giant gorilla stomping through the forest is likely to crush on-comers.
Just the question of the name now. Corbrokes, Ladoral, Cadbrokes? Curiously it turns out a perfect anagram of the two is ‘OK bolder rascal’, so there you go OK Bolder rascal PLC.
Category: Industry news, Ladbrokes
