Since changes to the gaming law and a smoking ban hit Rank Group profits and share price, the UK’s second largest gaming company has become a target for a possible takeover. Recently both Malaysia-based Genting and Singapore-based newly-named GuocoLeisure (BIL International) have acquired additional shares in Rank and now it seems that Genting has approached the company with a cash bid worth in the region of £485 million (US$959 million).

The Daily Mail reports that the Genting approach values Rank shares at 124 pence. Genting already holds an 11% interest in Rank and in 2006 bought UK casino market leader Stanley Leisure. If successful, the bid would give Genting control of the majority of casinos in the country, adding Rank’s 33 Grosvenor Casinos and 102 Mecca Bingos to its estate. However, the takeover could face problems with gaining regulatory approval unless it shed some of its newly acquired properties.

Following a decline in gaming revenue, last December Rank announced it would defer a number of major projects, revising guidance on capital expenditure downwards to £20 million from £50 million. Yesterday Rank received notification that Goldman Sachs Group now holds 9.10% of the total voting rights in the company. In March Rank’s Blue Square online gaming division launched 888sport.com, a pan-European sports betting service developed and marketed with 888 Holdings plc. Genting has recently been granted an Alderney online gaming licence. (E-04.01.08)

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