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William Hill has Slow Start to Second Half9 September 2002LONDON – As reported by the Dow Jones: "In its first set of results as a publicly traded company, U.K. betting-shop operator William Hill plc Monday posted a 32% increase in first-half profit, but warned that a run of unfavorable results could impact its full year. "The company said since the end of the second quarter, horseracing margins have been running below management's expectations, an admission that pushed shares down nearly 7% in early morning trading. "…[William Hill Chief Executive David Harding] said since the 2001-2002 soccer season ended, the company has been almost completely reliant on British horseracing and during the last six out of eight weeks, the results have been worse than expected. "…Although most analysts said this is just a normal, statistical blip and won't affect the company's long term outlook, William Hill shares were down 6.7% or 18.5 pence at 255 pence at 0815 GMT. "…The U.K.'s second largest chain of betting shops posted profit before interest and exceptional items for the 26 weeks to July 2 at GBP80.1 million (US$124.8 million). The company took an exceptional loss of GBP49.1 million (US$76.5 million) relating to its IPO. "The company reported a pretax loss of GBP12.2 million (US$19 million), compared to a pretax profit of GBP18.9 million (US$29.45 million) a year ago while total sales rose 47% to GBP1.59 billion (US$2.48 billion) from GBP1.08 billion(US$1.68 billion) last year. "This strong increase in sales during the half reflects not only the recent changes to betting duty but also higher sales from horseracing and the soccer World Cup…" |