LONDON (Alliance News) - Ladbrokes PLC Friday announced it has appointed John Kelly as the company's new chairman ahead of the proposed merger with Coral Group following the departure of Peter Erskine.
Kelly was a senior non-executive director at Ladbrokes prior to the appointment, and has now formally taken over the role from Erskine who announced he was leaving the company back in May.
Erskine leaves on a high after securing the company's merger with rival Coral Group earlier this year, with new Chairman Kelly to head up the new merger entity, Ladbrokes Coral PLC.
Following his appointment, Kelly said: "It is a great honour to take on the role of chairman of Ladbrokes at such an exciting time in the company's history. We have an aggressive organic plan for growth under our new chief executive, Jim Mullen, and are working hard towards the proposed merger with Coral Group."
With Kelly taking over as chairman, Ladbrokes has appointed Mark Pain to the board as a new non-executive director. Ladbrokes plans to appoint further non-executive directors before the merger with Coral is completed.
Ladbrokes and Gala Coral agreed the merger in July. It will create a company with a market capitalisation of around GBP2.1 billion and the largest bookie retail estate in the UK.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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