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Rank Plc Refuse Harrah’s Acquisition |
Although many news organizations in the UK have reported that the land and online casino group, Rank Plc is in a sticky financial situation, The Telegraph (a UK newspaper) announced just last week that Rank refused an acquisition offer by the U.S. based Harrah’s Entertainment. Reasons for the Rank refusal allegedly concern the fact that Harrah’s is an American company, and the offer would put a large portion of the company’s ownership in the ands of a U.S. based company.
The information is not wholly public at this point, so much is merely speculation as to why Rank chose not to accept the offer from Harrah’s Ent. The Telegraph did not reveal the Rank source that disclosed the Harrah’s refusal, but the rationale is certainly reasonable. Harrah’s currently has some land casinos operating in the UK, and if Rank accepted the offer, the company would acquire a 28 percent stake in Rank, and all of the company’s land and online casinos.
Though Rank allegedly refused the offer from Harrah’s, analysts predict that the company will sell a large portion of the online casino gambling group as a way to stay afloat and recover from the heavy UK taxes. Current reports speculate that the company will see offers from Ladbrokes, Genting (a Malaysian company looking to expand into the UK online casinos market), and perhaps a few of the other top players in the industry.
The current climate in the online casino industry is evolving quickly and many internet gambling companies are looking to emerging markets such as Asia and the expanding Canadian market for continued solvency. Fortunately for many of the qualifying UK online casinos, new UK regulations are more permissive in terms of advertising restrictions – companies on the UK white list should see increased profits once gambling ads come into full swing. |
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