GVC Shareholders Said Yes to Ladbrokes Coral Group Merger

For the betting firm GVC Holdings, everything’s coming up roses lately. On March 8, 2018, GVC shareholders supported the company’s acquisition of the Ladbrokes Coral Group. 99.97% of GVC Holdings shareholders backed the company’s decision to move on with the Ladbrokes Coral merger. On the other hand, only 0.03% of shareholders voted against this deal.

GVC decided to buy Ladbrokes Coral for £4 billion in December last year. In February 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority wanted to investigate the merger of the two companies. The CMA had the goal of determining whether the GVC and Ladbrokes Coral merger will result in “a lessening of competition.” The final decision of the CMA’s market inquiry should be made on April 6, 2018.

GVC Holdings is now a constituent member of the FTSE-250 index. The deal with the Ladbrokes Coral Group should help GVC significantly increase their business growth. If everything goes as planned, the combined group has a strong chance of entering UK’s FTSE 100 index. The CEO of GVC Holdings, Kenneth Alexander would also become the CEO of the combined company.

The GVC betting firm owns some of the most popular UK PayPal casinos, including Sportingbet casino and Party Casino. They have licences across 18 countries, and they employ 2,800 people from Europe, Asia, South America, as well North America. The company was launched in 2004, and since then this business is in constant growth.

History of GVC acquisitions

The first-ever acquisition of the GVC sports betting and gaming group was in 2009 when the company acquired Betboo. Just four years later, GVC took over Sportingbet. In 2015, GVC purchased bwin, which is now the group’s leading sports betting brand. Last year GVC Holdings took over another gaming company – Cozy Games Management.

The next stop for GVC Holdings is Ladbrokes Coral Group. Regarding his goals for the upcoming merger of the two companies, Kenneth Alexander said, “No. 1 priority will be to keep the growth coming from GVC and accelerate the growth in Ladbrokes Coral.”

We’ll know more about the merger of the Ladbrokes Coral and GVC and what will exactly happen with these two companies after April 6, 2018.