From today the The Isle of Capri casino in Coventry is under the management of G Casino. The project for a casino at the Ricoh Arena was conceived when proposed UK gambling deregulation was still a thing of beauty. If the new casino laws had proceeded as first anticipated then Coventry and Isle of Capri may well have had a supercasino and the company may not have reached the point where today it has announced the sale of its The Isle casino to the Rank Group.

Isle previously indicated its intention to exit its international operations in order to focus on continuing to improve operating results and increase free cash flow from its domestic property portfolio. The total price for the acquisition by Rank is £650,000, or an approximate current U.S. value of $940,000. In conjunction with the transaction, the Company also executed a buy-out of the Company's obligations under the Coventry casino lease for £7.7 million, or an approximate current U.S. value of $11.2 million, and releases Isle from its parent guaranty under the lease.

Donn Mitchell, senior vice president of UK operations, said, "We have taken a significant step forward in our plans to focus on U.S. operations by arranging for a discounted buy-out of the Coventry casino lease and sale of the Coventry casino operations to Rank. We are very pleased with the outcome of this transaction as the deal enables us to strategically exit the UK on good terms from all ongoing financial obligations, including our lease with the Ricoh arena. Additionally, the property will continue to operate under the management of one of the top UK gaming companies, so we do not expect the impact of a closure to be felt by employees or patrons.”

He added, “We built a magnificent facility in Coventry hoping to take advantage of changes in the UK gaming laws that did not occur, and have executed this deal in order to substantially mitigate the negative financial impact we expected to incur should we have continued to operate our facility there moving forward."

The casino, once described as the face of the future for gaming in Britain with an advanced coinless gaming smart card system, is to be relaunched under Rank’s G Casino brand after an investment of £1 million to reconfigure the site. Grosvenor Casinos’ eighth G casino is already home to Lady Gs, a live entertainment venue. Named for Coventry’s unique heroine Lady Godiva, the show bar will now have a particularly apt title for the G Casino.

Phil Urban, managing director of Grosvenor Casinos said: "In recent years we have successfully broadened the appeal of our business through the development of the G Casino brand, offering customers a grown-up leisure experience based on entertainment, gaming, fun and hospitality. I am excited at the prospect of bringing G Casino to Coventry as part of the superb Ricoh Arena."
(E-04.23.09)

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