GVC Holdings insists it has no further links to the Turkish market
Ladbrokes and Coral operator GVC Holdings insisted on Monday that it has no further links to the Turkish market following the sale of its business there back in 2017.
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The walk-away from the Turkish earn-out had been a specific condition of GVC's acquisition of the Ladbrokes Coral Group being recommended by the Ladbrokes Coral board of directors.
Responding to an article in The Times earlier, which suggested that it had offloaded the unit to a business partner of its chief executive, the company said: "The board today re-iterates the fact that subsequent to the disposal of the group's Turkish-facing business, GVC has no activity either directly or indirectly linked to the Turkish market.
"Furthermore, the board also categorically refutes suggestions that the group, or senior management, continue to benefit from any operations servicing the Turkish market."
It added that the sale was subject to an "arms-length" competitive process, overseen by Houlihan Lokey investment bank.
Earlier in the day, The Times said that Ron Watts, one of the three owners of Ropso Malta - the company to which the Turkish unit was sold - co-owns a stud farm in Scotland with GVC boss Kenny Alexander. Watts and Alexander are both directors of Kenron Ltd, owner of new Hall Stud in Ayrshire, having previously worked together at Sportingbet.
According to The Times, sources dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing by Alexander or GVC. One source insisted that all the connections between the men had been fully declared and that Watts had not been involved in negotiations.
At 1540 BST, the shares were down 5.5%. The share price slump coincided with news that the company is set to close up to 900 of its high street shops, in a move that will affect as many as 5000 jobs.
Like William Hill last week, GVC - which had previously estimated around 1,000 store closures - pinned the blame on the reduction in maximum stakes on fixed-odd betting terminals to £2 from £100m that kicked in in April.
William Hill confirmed last Thursday that it was planning to close 700 betting shops, putting 4,500 jobs at risk, as it has seen a big drop in gaming machine revenue since the change to FOBTs.