Rank Group and 888 Holdings have given up their plan to acquire the UK’s largest bookmaker in William Hill Plc after making two attempts to purchase the company.
Both bids were rejected by William Hill citing that they undervalued the company.
Last month, Rank Group which owns extensive offline gaming properties and 888 Holdings, operator of world’s second-largest online poker website 888poker.com had teamed up to form a consortium to bid for William Hill which has been struggling to post positive results in the past few quarters.
In their original bid the Consortium offered 339 pence per share which was turned down by the company. The consortium subsequently upped its offer to 352 pence per share which was also rejected by William Hill saying it still significantly undervalued the company. Analysts had said that the company would not be likely to consider any offer less than 400 pence a share. The deal if successful would have created the largest betting house in the UK and become one of the largest gambling organizations in the world.
In a statement, Itai Frieberger CEO 888 Holdings said,
We are disappointed that the board of William Hill did not share our vision of the combined businesses. We believe that there was compelling industrial logic for the combination of these highly complementary businesses, which in our view would have brought scale, diversification, and strong revenue and cost synergies, from which all shareholders would have benefitted
Rank Group CEO Henry Birch also expressed disappointment saying that the deal would have delivered value to shareholders of all three companies. The two companies said that the deal would have changed the landscape of not only the UK’s gambling industry but also that of the global gambling industry.
William Hill released a statement after the two companies announced their intention to withdraw their bid saying that it would continue to focus on its strategy to increase value for its shareholders. The chairman of William Hill, Gareth Davis said that the team had put in place a defined plan to diversify their offerings in the digital market and also expand their services internationally.
The company has identified four key priorities namely: turnaround of its online ventures, deliver on its technological initiatives, increase efficiency across board and recharge its international business strategy. William Hill is also focused on its search to find a new CEO after James Henderson was ousted last month due to the company’s continued poor performance in online betting.
A deal between Rank and 888 is unlikely given that the two companies came together primarily to takeover William Hill.
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