Investors in Ladbrokes were the big winners today as the bookie’s pitch for privately-owned Coral sent its shares surging more than 10%. Chief executive Jim Mullen’s first big move since taking the reins in April would create a group which owned more than 4000 of the UK’s 9000 betting shops — easily the biggest — as well as the third-largest online business. The tie-up was rejected by then trade secretary Peter Mandelson back in 1998 but Mullen told the Standard today: “That was back then. The dynamic is quite a different one from where it was. You’ve got a whole online market which wasn’t there for a start, so that has a major influence. But to be clear, there is a competition process to...
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