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mg investment already hold 3.9% so add 5.35% = 9.25% not sure any one would hold that much unless they are very comfortable with that investment time will tell .
Billionaire brothers Fred and Peter Done, who co-founded bookmaker Betfred in 1967, announced on Monday that they have purchased a 3.03% stake in rival betting operator William Hill.
The Monday announcement triggered speculations that the Betfred founders might be interested in acquiring William Hill’s UK retail estate or even in combining Betfred with its rival bookmaker.
According to some analysts, the fact that the Done brothers bought a stake in William Hill through Betfred’s main retail subsidiary (Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited) could be a precursor to a potential offer by Betfred to acquire William Hill’s betting shops chain.
William Hill was forced to close more than 700 betting shops around the UK to offset the losses caused by the Government’s crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals. The company’s retail estate currently counts 1,568 betting shops.
Betfred runs around 1,500 shops across the UK. If the bookmaker acquires its rival’s chain of betting shops, that would place it on a par with GVC Holdings, whose Ladbrokes and Coral brands currently manage about 3,000 betting shops.
According to a betting industry insider, Fred Done has long been eyeing William Hill’s real estate. “The question, as ever with Fred, will be what he’s willing to pay,” the unnamed source told The Times.
Undervalued William Hill
While some analysts believe that Monday’s stake purchase is a clear sign of a transaction involving the two bookmakers coming up, others said that it is more likely the Done brothers believe William Hill is undervalued and many fail to recognize the potential of its US sports betting business.
A spokesperson for Betfred confirmed that Fred Done believed William Hill to be undervalued, even though the legacy British betting operator was “the frontrunner” in the US sports betting field.
The Betfred spokesperson declined to comment on whether the Done brothers might be interested in acquiring some of William Hill’s business or the entire company.
Betfred itself has been looking to expand in the nascent US wagering market. The company has so far secured betting partners in Colorado, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, but will certainly form more partnerships in other states where athletic gambling is legal or is about to become legal.
As for William Hill, the company’s US division runs the majority of sportsbooks across Nevada and has been able to expand in more states thanks to a partnership with major casino operator Eldorado Resorts.
The British bookmaker also recently penned a sports media partnership with CBS Sports that provided William Hill with exclusive rights to promote its brand across the media giant’s broad range of digital platforms.
As Betfred seeks to grow its footprint in the US, the company approaching William Hill over a potential tie-up seems like a logical step.
its is not all panic selling because it is not functioning as a complete business. but is still running as a gaming business has it been oversold yes the online side will have a big jump in usage. The American Gaming Association research shows that 124m Americans were expected to visit a casino during 2020, an estimated 20% spike from 2019. That number represents roughly 49% of the adult US population. some of this will find it's way to us so not totally dead.
cj39 it may well go lower but we are at the stage of bailout packages so if the government comes along and says we will lend you 500m at no interest for one year in the next 5mins well you have just found the bottom. this should not be a basis to make an investment but it is highly possible this could happen as the government has just stated they will help company's that were in decent health before covid 19. if you think wmh wasn't in good health then it would be a bad investment anyway . i think the sp has priced in most of the bad unless this runs over wmh own stated time scale of length of impact. i also sent an email to Louise of wmh investors dept and she stated as the update did that we are in talks with creditor she also told me that they cannot claim of the insurance due to force majeure .
this is why they cancelled dividend? Under the present circumstances the Board has determined that it is
appropriate to focus on retaining resources within the Group and is suspending
the dividend until further notice. The 2019 final dividend will therefore not
be proposed at the AGM scheduled to be held on 15 May 2020. The Group has a
robust financial position and has appropriate liquidity to absorb the impacts
of the scenario outlined above. We have an undrawn committed revolving credit
facility of £425m and we are working closely with our banking partners to
enhance our liquidity position.
wg are down 20% it has become quite clear the market is no holding out much hope for company's with heavy debt burdens. the strange thing is now is a great time to take on debt with everything so low. and if oil stays this low transport will be so cheap. don't quote me on this but i don't think there has been a recession with low oil prices?
on cue! this is yesterdays looks like skeleton court today they are not up. maybe they all been acquitted Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 09:36
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 10:45 - 10:40
Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 10:53
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 11:09
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 13:32 - 13:03
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 13:37
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 14:59
pyueck well done mate not easy to keep these gremlins at bay.
sticking my neck out but it looks like we have run out of sellers. and i think everything that can be cancelled is?
Bushveld, the top performing stock on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last year, has achieved its success through the metal vanadium — and the share price climb and retreat has coincided with a boom in the metal’s price followed by a slump. Along with other metals, vanadium a key ingredient in top-quality steels and, apparently, it’s also used in a new kind of battery that could have some big applications in the future.
That’s all good, but what’s Bushveld looking like as an investment right now? I’m always wary of a share price chart that shows a massive short-term rise followed by a slump. I’m not a great follower of charts, but this pattern is so often characteristic of what I think of as a bandwagon growth stock.
What happens is that a company, usually a small one, catches the eye of growth investors looking for the next multi-bagger. Often, it’s a new technology company and, although a miner clearly isn’t in that category itself, there’s surely a knock-on effect here from interest in these new vanadium flow batteries.
Bubble?
Initially, investors who understand the company see a potential bargain and buy in. And, if enough do it, the resulting share price rise gets noticed by other investors who, frankly, don’t understand things quite as well. It gets discussed in investing forums too — and whenever I check the most popular shares on the forums, it’s almost always small-cap growth shares.
People pile in, it turns into a bubble stock, and eventually reaches a peak when the flow of early buyers dries up. What triggers the subsequent crash (which almost always happens) can be anything, usually a piece of news that’s not glowingly positive.
But, although caution is necessary, just assuming we’re seeing yet another burst bubble can be a mistake, and overlooking the possibility of a genuinely good company whose shares are unfairly depressed can lose us an opportunity.
Profitable
In the case of Bushveld Minerals, it’s a company that only started turning in profits last year and, with the vanadium price having fallen, there’s an earnings drop forecast for this year. But even after that, the shares would be on a tempting P/E of 10.4 — and with a trebling in EPS predicted for 2020, that would drop to just 3.6.
Being dependent on the price of a single commodity, Bushveld Minerals is going to be risky, but I think it could do very well in the next few years. I won’t be buying any myself, but I might well have done when I was younger.
just contacted William hill to ask if they had insurance against pandemic sadly it is a force majeure so they are not covered. and i cant see our government helping all they have done is try to kill us off so lets see were we at in a year.
you wont have to worry about take over at this sp they would have to work it out over a certain of average price. i also don't think this would be allowed to happen america has already stopped banks doing buybacks. i don't think it would go down to well if company's started taking advantage of a national emergency.
morbox i am not sure betfred allowed for all the games to be cancelled. the good news is wmh was already shutting down shops otherwise impact would of been higher so that turned out to be a very good move. as they stated for each month beyond stated period shops will cost them between 25-30m per month in ebitda that would of been double if they had other shops.
correct and the share price acknowledged that. not saying it will hold but it finished higher than it's low.
William Hill PLC (LSE: WMH) (William Hill or the Group), one of the world's
leading betting and gaming companies, provides the following update on the
impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
In light of the ongoing uncertainty created by COVID-19 and following recent
developments to postpone or cancel sporting events and close US casinos, we
anticipate a material impact to the Group's revenue and earnings in 2020. 53%
of our 2019 revenue was generated through our sports book business.
While it is too soon to accurately determine the effect of COVID-19 we have
considered a number of possible outcomes including, but not limited to; UK and
International football resuming in August, the cancellation or postponement
until 2021 of the UEFA European Football Championship, UK retail shop closures
for one month, the cancellation of the Grand National and Royal Ascot and US
sports resuming in time for the new NFL season in September.
If the outcomes outlined above transpire, EBITDA for the Group is expected to
reduce by £100m to £110m. Currently horse racing and our retail shops remain
open. An additional month of closure impacts EBITDA by £25m to £30m.
Under the present circumstances the Board has determined that it is
appropriate to focus on retaining resources within the Group and is suspending
the dividend until further notice. The 2019 final dividend will therefore not
be proposed at the AGM scheduled to be held on 15 May 2020. The Group has a
robust financial position and has appropriate liquidity to absorb the impacts
of the scenario outlined above. We have an undrawn committed revolving credit
facility of £425m and we are working closely with our banking partners to
enhance our liquidity position.
There are a number of mitigating activities available to us to reduce our
variable cost base and manage our cash flows efficiently and those actions are
underway. We have implemented a number of measures to ensure normal
operations, invoking our business continuity plans where appropriate. In
addition, large parts of the Group continue to operate on a 'business as
usual' basis, albeit while working from home.
Prior to the recent cessation of sporting events, trading in the quarter was
ahead of our expectations, driven by favourable sporting results and a strong
retail performance. We remain focused on maintaining a ready state to ensure
that William Hill can resume full operations as soon as the sporting calendar
recovers.
not a pump and dump done brothers saw wmh as a bargain at 133p and will probably buy more. wmh in a year will no doubt be worth 300p we are not talking about a two bit aim stock here. they will have to take drastic measures for now ie drop dividend to start with. 70/80% of revenue is online which will rise due to covid 19 no foot traffic going to casino's well i will gamble online? yes we will take a hit on cancelled games that is true yes debt is high. general public now own 0.5% they have completely sold off but institutions now own 94% why is that? because they are hoovering up shares that the public are selling?
if we are to take a hit from games not being played that will not last forever. so i guess the best thing they can do is cancel dividend which is what i would like to see it's better to shore up balance sheet for now. they could always pay a special dividend later. that being said that's if we do take a hit from covid 19. i have a online Chinese gaming stock and they reported much more online traffic which is what i was assuming so not all bad. but that only works for wmh lets say if you cant bet on your team because postponed so you play poker instead.
major league soccer just postponed games
investing is the way as this will recover but if games keep getting postponed wmh could end up at 50p-60p
yes we get that but the market don't and keeps slamming sp down