Gala Coral could net up to £250m by selling its chain of 137 UK bingo halls with investor interest in the vertical picking up following the UK government’s Budget announcement to halve gaming duty on bingo from 20% to 10%.
UK newspapers reported this week that a number of investment firms were looking at acquiring the Gala Bingo outlets, one of them, OpCapita, used to own the UK retail chains Comet and MFI and is headed up by US executive Henry Jackson, .
Gala Coral’s bingo division employs nearly 5,000 people in the UK and as the company decides on whether to launch an initial public offering later this year, it might welcome the idea of selling its bingo assets ahead of a float.
Lazard is understood to have been hired to manage the sale.
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
