DOZENS of betting shops in Scotland look likely to be sold after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) conditionally cleared the £2.3 billion merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral Group.
The merged Ladbrokes Coral Group will supplant William Hill as the largest bookmaker in the country by the end of the year, if it completes the sale of 350 to 400 betting shops to CMA-approved buyers, around 10 per cent of the combined estate.
The combined group controlling more than 4,000 licensed betting offices (LBOs). William Hill currently operates 2,400 LBOs.
In its final report, the CMA identified 642 local areas where the merger could hamper competition. It is not yet known how many of these area are north of the Border, but in Scotland Ladbrokes currently operates 330 LBOs to Coral’s 151, meaning if the proportion of areas where there could be a substantial lessening of competition mirrors the whole of the UK, as many as 50 LBOs in Scotland could be sold.
William Hill has 311 LBOs in Scotland.
Under the terms of the merger, Ladbrokes chief executive officer Jim Mullen will lead the combined company in the same role.
Mr Mullen, a Glaswegian with a background in software engineering, has been with the business since joining from William Hill in 2013 to lead Ladbrokes’s digital operations.
He has been chief executive since replacing Richard Glynne in March 2015.
He will be joined in the executive team by former HBOS and Alliance Boots chief executive Andy Hornby. Currently chief operating officer at Coral, Mr Hornby will assume the same position at the new group.
Gala Coral chief executive officer Carl Leaver will serve as executive deputy chairman for a year after completion, with a remit to delivery synergies.
The CMA added that it had no concerns over the impact on the online market, where such a plethora of gambling services meant there would not be a substantial lessening of competition.
Ladbrokes welcomed the announcement, and confirmed it was on track for an autumn completion after the deal was first announced in July 2015. In a statement, the company said: “This is a significant step forward and we will now begin to talk in earnest to potential buyers for these shops.”
Coral added that “discussions with potential buyers can now accelerate”.
The deal sees Ladbrokes acquiring the share capital of Gala Coral with Ladbrokes shareholders taking 52.75 per cent of combined company. Gala’s private equity owners will take the remainder.
Shareholders backed the deal in November, in spite of the vocal opposition of Celtic owner Dermot Desmond, who wrote to his fellow shareholders, imploring them to reject the merger terms.
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