William Hill Plans to Reduce UK Exposure

Last month, the news broke that William Hill, a gigantic gambling brand from Britain was going to purchase a Swedish company also known to the public – Mr. Green (MRG).

This acquisition will be beneficial to William Hill in multiple ways. Most importantly, the MRG deal is expected to reduce the exposure of British brand on the domestic market. And the news comes straight from the horse’s mouth…

…as the company published a document a few days ago.

William Hill hopes to complete the purchase for $308 million. In the meantime, the document provides further explanation of how the annual revenue of the Brits, which is £1.7 billion pounds is mostly derived from the United Kingdom.

More About the Strategy

Considering that MRG is an online-only brand, this is the area in which Hill expects to benefit the most. Furthermore, the Swedes have acquired several licenses…

…from Denmark, Latvia, Italy, Malta, Great Britain and Ireland and they also hope to get the Swedish license by the end of this year. By the way, Sweden has just launched a new batch of licenses and announced the first “receivers.”

“MRG’s online-only business will increase the William Hill Group’s share of revenue and profits from online as well as from outside the UK, and reduce William Hill’s exposure to the UK market,” the document explained.

Revenue Increase

Besides spreading their influence to other countries than the UK, the acquisition of MRG would also have a major economic impact on the company. The overall online revenue for William Hill would just from 42 to 47 percent in total (The US market is not taken into consideration).

Furthermore, the online boost would be quite visible outside of the UK borders…

…jumping from 14 to 21 percent!

Another reason why William Hill is so interested in MRG is the immense growth potential the company has showed. In October, the revenue of Mr. Green doubled compared to the same period last year. Eventually, they managed to earn SEK445.2 million in the third quarter this year.

This takeover will be significant for the British supplier. As the CEO of the company, Philip Bowcock said, the bookmaker would have a chance to become “a more digital and more international business.”

The Acceptance Period

The new offer document which appeared has been slightly modified and shows a different acceptance period, for example. The initial offer came with the acceptance period running from December 10th 2018 to January 11th 2019…

…but now that period lasts until January 17th 2019. According to William Hill, this is enough time “when such approvals can reasonably be expected.”

“If for any reason the review by the competition authorities would take longer than reasonably expected, and the necessary approvals are therefore not obtained before the expiry of the acceptance period, the acceptance period will be extended,” the bookmaker added.

Pending…

A deal settlement is expected to commence by the end of January, but William Hill said nothing about when the deal will be finalized. At least 90% of the MRG’s shares will be acquired by the British brand and MRG stated that 40.4% of shareholders have already agreed with the agreement, endorsing the offer.

Source:

“William Hill aims to reduce UK exposure through MRG deal”, igamingbusiness.com, December 5, 2018.