Rank Not to Buy Gala Coral

The long running discussions between Rank and Gala Coral seems to have ended in failure, as Rank have announced that they will not be make the purchase of the rival group.

Had it gone ahead the deal would have made the company the biggest casino operator in the UK. Talks had gone on for a couple of months on the proposed £250 million buyout but it seems that Rank was unable to fix a price which the firm considered as being acceptable to its shareholders.

The discussions actually kicked off after Rank approached Gala Coral, whose mammoth debt levels leave them open to such bids. A spokesman for the Gala Coral group said that the approach from Rank had been “unsolicited” and that they were “very happy” to continue to look to improve their own growth and performance levels now.

For the part of Rank, their chairman and chief executive Ian Burke confirmed that the possible deal had fallen through because it “did not achieve” their objective of improving shareholder value.

Genting Still the Biggest UK Casino Chain

The Gala Coral group owns 24 casinos and Rank have 35 under their brand, so the combined total of 59 would have made it easily the biggest name in the UK casino market place. At the moment that honour goes to Genting, with the Malaysian owned entertainment group having 45 casinos across the UK.

Even with the proposed deal falling through Rank are still expected to go ahead and expand their business anyway. This will come in the firm of 15 new “G” casinos which should be open to the public by 2015.