18th May 2006 07:00
William Hill PLC18 May 2006 WILLIAM HILL PLC TRADING STATEMENT William Hill Plc (the 'Group') will provide the following trading update on the20 week period ended 16 May 2006 (the 'period') at its AGM to be held latertoday. Since early March, sporting results have in general been favourable for bothhorseracing, which benefited from good results at the Cheltenham Festival and anexcellent result for the Grand National, and football that benefited from aboveaverage results. These good results more than offset the mixed sporting resultsfrom January and February which saw some strong weeks, aided by more favourablefootball results and some poor weeks, particularly for horse racing which wasimpacted by both unfavourable results and fixture cancellations. The Group is well positioned to take advantage of the busy sporting programmethis year that should result in record levels of turnover around events such asthe World Cup as well as good opportunities for account recruitment in theremote channels. In addition, trading comparatives will become easier in thecoming months due to the unfavourable sporting results experienced in the secondhalf of 2005. At this relatively early point in the year, in advance of theWorld Cup and busy summer racing programme, the Board remains comfortable withconsensus estimates for the full year out turn. Contacts: David Harding, Chief Executive Officer 020 8918 3910 Tom Singer, Chief Operating Officer 020 8918 3910 Simon Lane, Group Finance Director 020 8918 3910 James Bradley/ Deborah Spencer, Brunswick 020 7404 5959 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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