From the Blue Index blog

Dont bet on Ladbrokes
May 15th, 2009

Shares in bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD) were looking like a good recovery play up to this morning, having regained over 50% of their value after the October low of 133p last year

But this morning, Ladbrokes reported a 34% slump in profits for the first four months of 2009. Profits from big spending high rollers tumbled to just GBP25m from GBP40m in 2008, with punters enjoying a particularly good Cheltenham Festival in March. These abnormal gross win margin levels, increased free bets and unfavourable cost phasing in eGaming against the previous year resulted in the profits slump, although CEO Chris Bell was at pains to point out the rate of decline is not representative of our expectations for the year, and he said the decline has already given way to more normal trends in May. And overall, added Chris Bell, the general resilience of the business and strong cost controls gives us confidence in the outturn for the full year.

But brokers Noble, Shore Capital and Daniel Stewart all see the results as disappointing and weaker than expected, particularly given that results at rival William Hill are strong and in stark contrast

Full transcript here
http://blog.blueindex.co.uk/2009/05/dont-bet-on-ladbrokes/

Results tomorrow.

Final Results.

Financial Results



Group net revenue(1) of 963.7 million (2008: 1,052.9 million)

Group operating profit(1)(2) of 168.5 million (2008: 250.7 million)

High Rollers operating profit of 66.9 million (2008: 80.1 million)

Interest(3) of 44.1 million with blended interest rate of 4.9%

Profit before tax(3) of 191.3 million (2008: 265.6 million)

Effective tax rate(3) of 15%

Earnings per share(3) of 21.7 pence (2008: 32.2 pence(4))

Cash generated by operations was 226.0 million

Group net debt was 694.2 million at 31 December 2009 (31 December 2008: 987.1 million) with undrawn committed bank facilities of 428.1 million

As announced at the rights issue, the Group will not be paying a final dividend, giving a total dividend for 2009 of 3.5 pence per share.(5)

Corporation Tax Settlement


TIDMLAD

RNS Number : 5125K
Ladbrokes plc
21 April 2010

?
Corporation Tax Settlement

Ladbrokes plc has reached a settlement with HM Revenue and Customs ("HMRC")
which covers substantially all outstanding items in respect of tax years through
to 31 December 2007. Ladbrokes expects a cash receipt in 2010 of approximately
GBP80 million in respect of corporation tax repayable from HMRC.

The settlement results in the recognition in the 2010 Income Statement, within
the tax charge, of a GBP262 million tax credit in relation to prior years. Of
this credit, GBP216 million relates to current tax, and GBP46 million relates to
the recognition of a deferred tax asset. This asset primarily reflects the
recognition of tax losses available for offset in future periods.

The finance charge in 2010 will be reduced by approximately GBP20 million to
reflect the interest consequences of the settlement.

Our guidance for the effective accounting tax rate over the medium term remains
unchanged at 19%. We anticipate that the cash tax rate over the same period
will fall to about 15% to reflect the utilisation of tax losses.

bottom? or cotton?

LAD in early stage talks with 888

The price action on LAD has looked encouraging ever since the bottom two weeks ago, Friday's action particularly so - possibly through insiders trading on expectation that the 888 rumour would crystallize over the weekend.

Bookmaker Ladbrokes is due to update the market on recent trading. The City will be looking for thoughts on the chain's 600m takeover talks with online gaming firm Sportingbet ahead of the October 17 deadline. Analysts at Shore Capital said in a note last week that, at Sportingbet's current share price, the market could be already discounting on the basis that no deal will be forthcoming. "If this is the case, then Ladbrokes clearly needs to provide a credible roadmap for how it intends to reinvigorate its online operation either organically or via other acquisition targets," they said.

Ladbrokes' woes could be coming to an end following profit boostBookmaker attempts to put failed digital strategy behind it as 50% online profit drop in line with expectations
Share 0
Email Simon Neville
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 August 2012 15.42 BST Jump to comments (0) If you ever want a lesson in how to control market expectations you only need to look at the masterclass given by the country's second-biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes.

The company saw an 11% rise in operating profit to £106.9m, on revenues up 8% to £529m in the first six months of the year.

But operating profits on its digital arm dropped a devastating 50% from £29.7m to just £15m over the same period after boss Richard Glynn decided to invest £50m on a new digital strategy, which revolved around improving its website.

Whereas more established bookies have snapped up up-and-coming online rivals, Glynn decided the best course of action was to spend the money in-house rather than make an acquisition.

But the decision was a failure – the website has been delayed around 12 months after users complained, and computer glitches meant the company could not transfer its database from the old website to the new.

All at a time it was hoping to cash in on the Euro 2012 football and a well-known sporting event taking place in London this summer.

Meanwhile, bigger rival William Hill continues to grow and saw profits up, while its digital offerings have been well-received.

So, with such a pounding taken due to its digital strategy, why are shares up 2.2p at 156.9p, especially when online is one of the fasting growing areas in betting?

The answer is, Ladbrokes put its hands up pretty early on this, admitting its problems and attempting to move on.

Nothing was fudged to sound more positive than it was, and investors and analysts were kept updated.

The company also did the unthinkable (when you consider how long it took the likes of Bob Diamond et al to stand aside) by sacking Richard Ames, the director responsible for the disaster.

Today, analysts were broadly in agreement that Ladbrokes could and should improve.

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4420364


Ladbrokes delivers growth in profit, cash and dividend



Financial highlights

· Group net revenue (1) grew by 8.4% to £529.0 million

· Group operating profit (1) (2) of £106.9 million, up 11.0%

· Profit before tax up 48.9% to £106.9 million

· Underlying earnings per share (3) up 25.3% to 9.4p

· 23.8% increase in cash generated by operations

· Net debt reduced by a further £56.9 million to £397.0 million

· 10.3% increase in interim dividend to 4.30 pence





Operating highlights

· UK Retail operating profit (1) (2) of £91.3 million, up 21.1%

· 2.4% growth in OTC (over the counter) net revenue with continued resilience in amounts staked, up 0.7%

· Machines net revenue up 20.1% with gross win per terminal week of £947 for H1 and £970 in Q2

· Odds On launched on machines ahead of schedule, already in use by over 100,000 customers

· Over 94% operating profit (1) (2) growth in European Retail driven by revenue growth in Ireland and Belgium

· Digital net revenue growth of 3.0% driven by sportsbook growth of 10.7%

· Growth in Digital actives maintained with 21.5% increase over the period (H2 2011: 18.2%)

· Over 110,000 new sportsbook customers and over 65,000 new casino customers year on year

· Continued growth in Bet in Play with stakes now 58% of total Digital sportsbook amounts staked (4)

· Over 25% of sportsbook net revenue and 37% of total sportsbook actives on mobile

The good results starting to show in the share price

Bookmaker Ladbrokes added 5.6 to 184.1p on the FTSE 250 , reaching its highest level since 2009, with one dealer saying expectations of a shake-up at its digital division, as well as lingering bid speculation, were behind the share price move. The group pledged last month to revive its digital offering after revealing in its first-half results that profits at the division had dropped to £15m from £29.7m a year earlier.

Sold my holding, held since oct 2011, they have performed well

Bet you haven't :-)

How much. lol I have learnt a lot, hold on to long and i get burnt.lol

Ex-divi wed 20th March (4.6p)

Ladbrokes plots online boost

LADBROKES is poised to strike a deal with Playtech, a gaming software supplier, in a move to boost its online operations.

The two are in advanced talks about a tie-up that would hand Playtech a bigger role in running the bookmaker’s internet casino and bingo games. It may also help with online sports betting.

The deal follows the planned sale of Playtech’s stake in a joint venture with William Hill, Britain’s biggest bookie. The software company has been instrumental in transforming William Hill’s online service. However, its involvement in the venture has restricted its ability to work with the other big bookmakers.

Ex-divi wed 18th Sept (4.3p)

Canaccord note today:
"Ladbrokes produced another profits warning. It stated that its Retail business has seen some recovery in footfall and amounts staked since the weak July trading update, but margins have been lower than expected, while there is some upward pressure on costs. However, the real disappointment has been Digital, where margins have been particularly weak, and it has under-estimated the disruption from its transition over to the Playtech platform. Digital profits are now likely to be in the range of £10m to £14m, which compares with the consensus forecast of £27.5m. And given the run-rate in Retail, we see a shortfall of at least £6m to previous consensus forecasts of £143.8m.
This is the third profits warning from Ladbrokes so far this year and while there has been some impact from external factors – weather, results, intensifying Machines competition in the High Street – the Digital performance has been beyond disappointing, while retail appears to be underperforming the competition. We are cutting our EBITA forecast from £170.7m (consensus £170.6m) to £147.1m, reducing our PBT (norm) from £148.7m/14.5p to £125.0m/12.2p, which is a 16% EPS downgrade. Significantly, management has committed to holding the dividend both in 2013 (when we estimate it will be just 1.4x covered by earnings) and also in 2014. Details of the changes are in the table on page four.
This is clearly another deeply disappointing update from Ladbrokes, putting considerable pressure on the CEO, Richard Glynn, who has seen Digital profits drop from £63m to less than £14m since his arrival. The Playtech contract does provide a structure for significant improvement in Digital in FY14, although it appears that the transition from the existing Microgaming platform may also be slower than expected. The shares are trading on an estimated 15.5x current year PER and 10.0x EV/EBITDA, which does not look compelling, until there is evidence of a significant turnaround in Digital. And investors are unlikely to take a lot on trust, given recent disappointments. The 4.8% dividend yield should provide some support, but we reduce our multiples-derived TP from 220p to 190p and move from Buy to HOLD."

Canaccord Genuity Hold 176.75 188.10 220.00 190.00 Downgrades

Shore Capital Hold 176.75 188.10 - - Retains

Numis Add 176.75 188.10 - 210.00 Downgrades



Just had a small dabble here @174p

Gap closed for now.