Gala Coral Eurobet
Gala Coral Group Ltd is a British betting shop, bingo and casino operator owned by private equity firms Candover Investments, Cinven and Permira. In October 2005 it merged with Coral Eurobet for £2.18 billion. The acquisition made it the UK's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator. The combined business creates Europe’s largest integrated betting and gaming company European private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has backed the acquisition by Gala of Coral Eurobet, the bookmaker and internet gaming operator, for a consideration of £2.18 billion (€3.18 billion). Eurobet Online delivers a full range of sports betting, casino and games products, including virtual racing and bet-in-play products Ladbrokes.com.au launched in 2013, our Australian business operates online under the Ladbrokes, Bookmaker and Betstar brands. Gala Coral Group The Gala Coral Group incorporates the brands Coral, Eurobet, Gala Bingo and Gala Casinos. They aim to provide high volume and low stake gaming leisure. The Group is the first in the UK to operate bookmaking, bingo and casinos on the high street as well as online.
Gala's casinos and bingo halls will be merged with Coral's betting shops and dog tracks.
The enlarged empire will be worth more than £4bn, with more than 2.2 million customers visiting 1,450 outlets.
Gala chief executive Neil Goulden said betting and bingo would benefit from deregulation.
Both firms also have a strong presence on the internet, which Mr Goulden said would be the biggest advantage of merging.
Gala Coral Eurobet Facts
'We are going to combine their Eurobet business with our fledgling interactive business - internet, TV and telephone betting,' said Mr Goulden.
Gala Coral Group
'Competitive threat'
Additionally, casinos will soon be allowed to advertise and stringent membership rules will be loosened.
'This is a great vehicle to take advantage of deregulation, with a full suite of assets that will benefit,' said analysts Robin Chhabra at Evolution Securities.
'It is a competitive threat to other players like William Hill and Rank, but it's only mildly negative for them.'
Coral is 16%-owned by management and 84%-owned by buy-out firm Charterhouse, having been previously owned by Ladbrokes and Morgan Grenfell private equity.
In August this year it announced it was considering a stock market flotation but did not rule out a sale at the time.
Gala Coral Eurobet Club
Since Charterhouse backed the management buy-out in 2002 Coral's annual operating profits have more than doubled to £145m on sales of £5.4bn.