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William Hill to go it alone after rivals drop bid

The bookie was never enthusiastic about the three-way deal and now its potential partners have backed off
August 18, 2016

There certainly wasn't a lot of enthusiasm emanating from William Hill (WMH) in response to the proposal by two of its rivals, Mecca Bingo owner Rank Group (RNK) and online operator 888 (888) to join forces.

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And now there will be no formal bid after the approaching pair decided to give up on their desired target. They'd initially offered the equivalent of 364p a share to Hill shareholders and then upped this to 394p as well as agreeing the target's investors would own 48.8 per cent of the enlarged entity.

The duo had suggested there would be cost and revenue synergies but William Hill's management was bearish about the amount of debt the combined group would have and thought the target date of 2020 for the benefits to be realised was too distant.