Ladbrokes seeks Examinership for Irish business

21/4/2015

LADBROKES ADDRESSES UNDERPERFORMING IRISH BUSINESS - INTERIM EXAMINER APPOINTED

Ladbrokes PLC (Ladbrokes) has today announced that the Directors of Irish trading subsidiaries, Ladbroke (Ireland) Limited, Ladbroke Leisure (Ireland) Limited and Dara Properties Limited ("Ladbrokes Ireland") have successfully applied to the High Court in Dublin to seek the appointment of an interim examiner and to be provided with the protection of the court under the examinership procedure.

Under Irish Law the examinership process provides court protection to enable the examiner of Irish companies to put together a Scheme of Arrangement with creditors with a view to allowing the company to trade as a sustainable business going forward. It is estimated the process will last up to 100 days.

Ladbrokes Ireland has entered examinership with the objective of restructuring the business to create a sustainable competitive business which is currently held back due to real estate legacy issues.

During the examinership process it will be business as usual for all Ladbrokes Ireland operations - customers will not be affected, shops will remain open and existing contracts and terms and conditions will remain in place. The examinership has no impact on the Ladbrokes Digital or Telephone businesses. The decision to seek examinership follows several years of declining profits in Ladbrokes Ireland culminating in a loss after interest and tax of over €5m in the last financial year (year ended 31st December 2014, unaudited).

Jim Mullen Chief Executive of Ladbrokes said:

"The action taken today by the directors of the Irish companies is to safeguard the Irish business which in its current state is not sustainable and cannot be supported by the Ladbrokes Board without radical change, having lost its competitive edge.

"This step has been taken in the best long term interests of Ladbrokes Ireland, its employees, customers, partners and shareholders. In entering the process, our aim is to build a sustainable and competitive business based in Ireland, run from Ireland, investing in Ireland and supporting the Irish economy and sporting industry while delivering for shareholders."

Ladbrokes currently has 196 shops operating in the Republic of Ireland. The company employs 840 people in Ireland. Subject to the views of the examiner, the restructuring is likely to lead to redundancies at all levels of the operation with the number dependent on the outcome of the estate restructuring. Ladbrokes Digital and Telephone businesses are not impacted by this process.

Enquiries +44 (0) 208 515 5513

Ciaran O'Brien, Corporate Affairs Director

Richard Snow, Investor Relations