SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Sunday Times has this weekend reported that London hedge fund Parvus Asset Management (Parvus) is lobbying for a 2017 sale of William Hill.
Headed up by Danish financier Mads Eg Gensmann, Parvus is currently William Hill’s biggest investor with a 14% shareholding.
The Sunday Times reports that Gensmann has been pushing William Hill governance for number months on the sale of FTSE 250 company, which competes alone against the newly merged entities of Ladbrokes Coral, Paddy Power Betfair and GVC Holdings in the saturated betting sector.
The London hedge fund favours a sale of William Hill outright, over any potential industry merger. Last October Parvus terminated £5 billion merger discussions between William Hill and Toronto-listed Amaya Inc, stating that the business combination has ‘No logic & No value’.
This January William Hill governance had to issue its second profit warning for its full-year 2016 performance, as the operator was hit by customer friendly December results in football and racing lowering its group profits by £20 million (FY 2016 earnings guidance -£260-280 million).
William Hill governance will present its full-year 2016 results on Friday, 24 February 2017, with industry analysts further expecting a corporate update on the firm’s search for a new Chief Executive, following the departure of former incumbent James Henderson last August.
