26th Oct 2015 07:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250 investment vehicle Caledonia Investments PLC on Monday said it has struck a deal to acquire the Gala Coral Bingo chain for GBP241.0 million.
The bingo halls business at Gala Coral was the only unit not part of the agreed merger between Gala Coral Group Ltd and UK-listed bookmaker Ladbrokes PLC in July. The merger between the pair will include the Coral Retail, Eurobet Retail and Coral online business, but the bingo arm was not part of the deal.
The acquisition by Caledonia does not include the GalaBingo.com online offering, which will be retained by the seller.
The company has a 38% share of the UK bingo market, opening 130 clubs with more than 1.1 million active members in the UK. For the year to September 26, it posted a GBP33.0 million pretax profit.
Duncan Johnson, the head of unquoted investments at Caledonia, said Gala Bingo's "defensive, enduring business model, which delivers strong cash generation and dividend yield, fit ideally with the investment criteria sought by Caledonia for its unquoted portfolio and complements our other assets in the unquoted pool."
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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