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William Hill (WMH)     

rolling - 04 Nov 2003 14:05

Where do you think they will go to or should i sell now

HARRYCAT - 16 Oct 2016 15:13 - 425 of 472

Liberum comment on the proposed merger:
"(WMH LN) Last night the largest shareholder (14.3%) in William Hill – Parvus – published an open letter in which it comprehensively rejected the potential merger with Amaya as 1. It makes no strategic sense to them (cross-sell into Poker is very difficult), 2. Valuation – Parvus estimate that Hills is paying a c.50% EV/EBITDA premium for Amaya and that Hills’ current ‘fair value’ is c.30% above the current share price 3. The level of leverage is too great to the effect that the deal would leave the Group with £2.8bn of proforma net debt – far higher than the previous bid from 888/Rank which Parvus may have supported.

Against this backdrop it is hard to see how the deal can progress although Hills’ Board are only at early stage of DD discussions with Amaya and will almost certainly want to continue these to see if they could eventually recommend a deal.

What is clear is that Parvus have hung up the ‘For Sale’ sign at Hills and the Company remains ‘in play’.

In our view £100m of synergies with any potential partner pushes the share price towards 400p or beyond if a bid premium materialises."

HARRYCAT - 18 Oct 2016 08:30 - 426 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill said that, after canvassing views from several major shareholders, its directors have decided the company will not pursue merger discussions with Amaya.

"Accordingly, the Board has informed Amaya that it is withdrawing from discussions and wishes Amaya well for the future," William Hill said in a statement.

"The Group has continued to focus on the four priorities set out by Interim CEO Philip Bowcock - online, technology, efficiencies and international - to deliver value for shareholders and will also continue to consider strategic alternatives where they have the potential to create shareholder value.

"Trading has continued to be positive in the second half of the year with work focused on improving Online performance across mobile gaming and key customer journeys.

"The Board continues to expect operating profit for 2016 to be at the top end of the previously guided £260-280m range.

"The share buy-back programme William Hill announced on 26 February 2016 has been suspended since 23 July 2016. We will now recommence the share buy-back programme."

jimmy b - 14 Nov 2016 08:51 - 427 of 472

Wm Hill upbeat

StockMarketWire.com

William Hill said it continues to expect FY operating profit1 to be at the top end of the previous �260-280m guidance, subject to normalised gross win margins in the rest of the year.

In a trading statement for the 17 weeks ended October 25, it said online has returned to growth with UK Sportsbook amounts wagered +4% in H2 following mobile Sportsbook enhancements in Q2; H2 focused on improvements to gaming, UX and marketing.

The roll-out of 2000 proprietary self-service betting terminals (SSBTs) has been completed in Retail, and organisational structure changes on track for implementation from 1 January 2017.

William Hill said the positive performance was continuing in international markets with double-digit wagering and net revenue growth in H2 to date in Australia, the US and Italy and Spain.

There were opportunities for about �30m of group operating efficiencies identified for delivery in 2017, with about �15m of digital marketing spend already identified to be used to drive faster digital net revenue growth.

"In this period we have continued to focus on Online's turnaround, identifying efficiencies and international growth," said CEO Philip Bowcock in a statement.

"Online has returned to wagering growth in the UK following significant enhancements to our mobile Sportsbook in Q2 and we are making good progress on the gaming and user experience improvements in H2, further helped by the Grand Parade team we acquired in August. We will complete the heavy lifting on Online's changes in Q1.

"Our international businesses are all performing well, with double-digit wagering and net revenue growth in each of our key markets of Australia, the US and Italy and Spain. In a tough market, the Australian business is benefiting from our in-house technology, which allows us to bring customers innovative new products more frequently than our competitors.

"Looking forward, we remain on track to deliver 2016 operating profit at the top end of our guided range. With our significantly improved products and user experience, we are confident that this is the right time to invest further in our Online business.

"Therefore, the marketing efficiencies we are announcing today will be reinvested in driving faster digital growth to benefit future performance."

Separately, the company confirmed it will, in early 2017, appoint John O'Reilly, Robin Terrell and Mark Brooker as non-executive directors.

jimmy b - 08 Dec 2016 11:40 - 428 of 472

Big drop here today .


Transaction in Own Shares

William Hill PLC ("William Hill") announces that it has purchased the following William Hill Ordinary Shares of 10 pence each from its corporate broker Citigroup Global Markets Limited ("Citi") today:

Number of Ordinary Shares acquired
430,000
Average price paid per Ordinary Share
£3.069657
Highest price paid per Ordinary Share
£3.1280
Lowest price paid per Ordinary Share
£2.9990
Date and timing of transactions
7 December 2016; 08.00 - 16.35
Trading venue
London Stock Exchange; BATS; Chi-X; Turquoise
Company ISIN
GB0031698896

The purchased shares will be held as treasury shares.

Following the above purchase, William Hill holds 24,894,375 Ordinary Shares in treasury and has 862,346,393 Ordinary Shares in issue (excluding treasury shares).

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation), a schedule of individual trades by Citi is available using the following link:

2517GEORGE - 08 Dec 2016 12:17 - 429 of 472

Confirms what a waste of money buybacks can be.
2517

HARRYCAT - 08 Dec 2016 13:06 - 430 of 472

A cross-party group of MPs will today demand stricter controls on betting machines that allow punters to lose £300 a minute on casino games.
The fixed odds betting terminals all-party parliamentary group will publish the findings of a six-month inquiry into the machines.

Its report says that there is a “prima facie” case to cut the maximum stake of £100 a spin. It also urges ministers to slow the speed with which punters can make bets from once every 20 seconds. The report is significant because it is supported by MPs from all the main parties, including the senior Conservative backbencher Sir Peter Bottomley.

HARRYCAT - 09 Jan 2017 11:34 - 431 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill said the group's FY operating profit for 2016 is about £260m, at the bottom end of its guided £260-£280m range.

In the nine weeks since the trading statement on 14 November 2016, wagering trends continued in line with those previously reported.

"However, gross win margins were below expectations, in large part due to unfavourable football and horseracing results impacting the sector during December," the company said in a statement.

Interim CEO Philip Bowcock commented:
"Importantly, the improvements we saw in wagering in Online and Australia in the second half have continued in recent weeks.

"However, all four divisions saw customer-friendly results at the back end of the year, which translated into profits being about £20m below our prior expectations.

"With key underlying trends continuing to be positive, the recent run of sporting results have not changed our confidence in a better performance in 2017."

2517GEORGE - 31 Jan 2017 10:30 - 432 of 472

Well above average turnover today.
2517

HARRYCAT - 31 Jan 2017 12:04 - 433 of 472

Looks like the FOBT are due to be regulated again, which is going to hit the bookies profits.

"The Fixed Odds Betting Terminal APPG will today launch the findings of their six month Inquiry “Fixed Odds Betting Assessing the Impact” which has taken in-depth evidence into the impact of FOBT machines in communities across the UK.

The Inquiry was launched following growing disquiet among politicians about the harm being caused on Britain’s High Streets by the high stake machines, which can be played with little supervision in any betting shop.

Concern has grown that the machines are both highly addictive and an anomaly in the regulatory framework, and offer high stakes casino style gambling with punters at risk of losing £100 every 20 seconds.

The findings of the report include
*That there is now a ‘prima facie’ case for significantly reducing the maximum stake that can be wagered on a FOBT
*At the very least the stake should be reduced on a precautionary basis, in line with the principles which govern the work of the Gambling Commission, until sufficient evidence is presented to the Government that the high stakes on these machines do not cause harm
*That the Gambling Commission “have failed” to adequately advise the Government in recent years, despite the principles for regulation and licencing under which the Gambling Commission operates
*That there is a case for the maximum stake to be reduced to £2
*Government should also consider reducing the speed of spin on a FOBT in order to reduce the potential for harm to be caused and also review the number of FOBTs permitted in an individual bookmaker
*Government should address localism concerns and calls for greater controls over FOBTs at the local level. Powers should be given to local authorities to prevent the clustering of betting shops.
The FOBT APPG, chaired by Carolyn Harris MP, took evidence from, among others, academics, problem gamblers, campaign groups, local authorities, industry experts, Gambling Minister Tracey Crouch, Sarah Harrison, Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, Chris Kelly, Chair of the Responsible Strategy Gambling Board, Kate Lampard, Chair of Gamble Aware.

The bookies refused to take part in the Inquiry, which Ms Crouch said she was ‘surprised’ to hear."

HARRYCAT - 24 Feb 2017 09:40 - 435 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill has turned in a broadly steady FY pretax profit and dividend amid what it penned as a challenging year, particularly in H1.

Pretax profit was £181.3m, from £184.7m. Revenue was £1.60bn, from £1.59bn. Dividend was steady at 12.5p a share.

The company said its performance was below directors' expectations at the start of the year.

"However, we made a number of strategic and leadership changes to address this and ultimately delivered a full-year profit within the range of our revised expectations," it said.

"These changes continue to bear fruit, with strong indications that Online is returning to sustained growth."

Interim CEO Philip Bowcock said 2016 was a challenging year for William Hill, but one in which the company made considerable operational progress, leaving it well-placed to drive the business forward in 2017.

"We have delivered extensive product, user experience and marketing improvements in Online, modernised our Retail management structure to focus more on the customer and continued to grow in our key international markets," he said in a statement.

There were now encouraging signs in all of William Hill's divisions, in particular Online's UK business, which was now delivering sustained growth.

LOOKING FORWARD
Bowcock said William Hill wanted to keep improving the customer experience by expanding its product range, increasing marketing investment and deploying technology assets and expertise in key areas.

"At the same time, we expect our transformation programme to continue delivering important efficiency savings that we can reinvest to deliver an even better customer experience and faster growth," he said.

HARRYCAT - 09 May 2017 09:01 - 436 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
Wm Hill has made a positive start to the year, across the board, and at thi stage is in line with expectations for 2017.

"Our Online business continues to deliver growth thanks to the improvements in product, user experience and marketing we have made," said CEO Philip Bowcock.

"Retail is also seeing positive trends while our key international markets continue to perform well with double-digit wagering growth."

Bowcock said the company's transformation programme was progressing well and it was on track to deliver £40m of annualised savings by the year-end.

"Overall, we are in line with market expectations for 2017 at this early stage in the year."

Wm Hill said its total net revenue for the 17 weeks to April 25 was up 9%, with gains in online (up 16%), retail (1%), Australia (41%) and US (19%).

2517GEORGE - 27 Jun 2017 12:55 - 437 of 472

Seems to be falling over a cliff around the 250p mark

Claret Dragon - 27 Jun 2017 16:43 - 438 of 472

Looks overdone unless some clients had it away at Ascot!!!

skinny - 27 Jun 2017 16:55 - 439 of 472

Looking at the state of some of the women, I'm sure they did!....I'll get my coat.

HARRYCAT - 28 Jun 2017 18:41 - 440 of 472

Canaccord today:
"The pace of change in the US laws regarding sports betting and online gaming has been glacial. But there was an interesting milestone yesterday, pointing to the potential legalisation of sports betting across much of the US.
The US Supreme court announced yesterday that it will hear arguments on whether to permit sports betting in New Jersey. If favourable, it would overturn the rather curious Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). PASPA only permits racetrack betting on "animal racing", other than (as a quirk of history) Nevada, which is allowed fully licensed sports books, and in Oregon, Montana and Delaware, which have sports lotteries. New Jersey's proposals would only allow sports betting at Casinos and Racetracks, and would prohibit betting on some sports (ie College football). But if New Jersey wins, then other States will undoubtedly follow, and we could expect to see land-based sports betting proliferate across much of the US, with some obvious exception (ie Utah).
There is no guarantee that the hearing will be favourable, and realistically, the outcome is unlikely to be clear until 2018. But this does suggest a sea change in attitudes towards sports betting - the NBA, for example, is now favourable to legalising betting on basketball, having previously been fiercely opposed.
The major initial beneficiary of any change would be William Hill (Hold, TP 290p), which is the leading land-based sports betting operator in Nevada. However, we would see the legalisation of some land-based sports betting as paving the way for Online sports betting in some states. We believe the most obvious beneficiaries would be GVC (Buy, TP 850p) and 888 (Buy, TP 330p), which both operate in New Jersey (Casino and Poker), and have strong domestic partnerships - with MGM and Caesars, respectively. Playtech (Buy, TP 1140p) would also be well placed as a potential technology supplier to domestic operators."

HARRYCAT - 28 Jun 2017 18:45 - 441 of 472


Investec note:
We see further headwinds for William Hill with tough comparables given the Euros in 2016, very poor GWMs in all four divisions in the last 2 months of H117E, a credit betting ban in Australia (we estimate a c.17.5% loss of Australian revenue from March 2018), a change in revenue mix in Australia (lower future GWMs) and higher central costs. The Triennial Review poses further risk to Retail revenue while the CMA review raises the risk of fines and lower customer acquisition/monitored bonusing. We set our TP at 245p (prev. 279p) and downgrade to SELL from Hold.
FY17/FY18E EPS downgraded by 8.1%/5.0: We lower FY17E EPS to reflect weaker GWMs YTD, higher central costs and changes to the revenue mix (more racing and less sports) which we expect to lead to lower future GWMs. For FY18E, we reduce EPS for these reasons as well as an Australian ban on credit betting (assumed from 1 March 2018 onwards).
Last 2 months of H117: WMH last updated the market on 9th May, when it reported net revenue growth of 9%. We expect GWMs to be significantly lower across all 4 divisions for the remaining 2 months of H117E given punter-friendly sports results. We estimate Retail, Online, Australian and US gross win margins of 16.5%, 5.8%, 7.6% and 5.6% respectively for the remaining 2 months of H117E. This results in H117E GWMs for Retail, Online, Australia and the US of 17.5% (H116: 19%), 6.9% (H116: 7.3%), 8% (H116: 9.9%) and 6% (H116: 5.7%) respectively. We now forecast FY17E EBIT of £258.7m.
Aussie credit betting and lower future GWMs: We downgrade FY18E Australian revenue by 8.3% and EBIT by 10.9% (assuming 10 months of the credit betting ban). We now assume a GWM between 9% and 10% (down from 10%-11%) given changes in revenue mix (more racing, less sport and less in-play).
Valuation: We lower our target price to 245p to reflect higher central costs, the credit betting ban in Australia and greater risk surrounding both the CMA review and Triennial Review given the outcome of the recent UK election. We value the Group at 8.0x FY17E adj. EV/EBITDA. The shares trade at 8.5x FY17E EV/EBITDA."

Australia (5% of EBIT): While the sportsbetting market is growing at 15%pa, the business faces familiar headwinds in terms of competition, regulation and taxation. Please see our note of 16 June following a meeting with Tom Waterhouse, CEO of William Hill Australia. Last week the Australian government announced it would legislate to ban credit betting, which represents 30% of group revenues and 25% of gross profit. Assuming the legislation proceeds this could impact profits by around £17m next year. In addition there is a significant risk of tax increases, which may prompt consolidation in the market.

HARRYCAT - 02 Aug 2017 07:44 - 442 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill said its online and retail divisions in the UK were growing at or above market growth rates in the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2017.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Online: UK Sportsbook amounts wagered +13% and UK gaming net revenue +9%

- Retail: amounts wagered +2% and gaming net revenue +3%

- International revenue growth: continued net revenue growth in Australia and US

- Transformation and technology: on track to deliver £40m of annualised efficiency savings by year-end and, over the long term, improved revenues, greater cost efficiency and better organisational effectiveness

FINANCIAL RESULTS:
- Group net revenue up 3% to £837m

- Adjusted operating profit of £129.5m, down 1%

- Adjusted EPS2 of 11.2p, up 7%

- Strong cash generation with operating cash flow of £115.3m

- Balance sheet remains healthy with net debt for covenant purposes of £604.6m, 1.7x EBITDA

- Interim dividend increased 4% to 4.26p per share, reflecting the group's continued strong cash flow and the Board's confidence in delivery of strategic priorities

2517GEORGE - 23 Nov 2017 16:44 - 443 of 472

Some short lived excitement in WMH late this afternoon touching 305p before finishing @ 283.80p up 5.80p

HARRYCAT - 24 Nov 2017 12:29 - 444 of 472

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill confirmed that it is in "very preliminary: discussions with CrownBet, the 62%-owned online wagering business of Australia's Crown Resorts, regarding a possible combination with William Hill Australia.

The admission came in response to media speculation.

"There is no certainty that these preliminary discussions will lead to any transaction," William Hill said.
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