Harrahs Entertainment Seeks UK And European Acquisitions - 12-26-07

December 26 - US gambling giant Harrah's is making another attempt at acquiring a significant stake in UK based Rank Plc, after failing to acquire a 28% share in the company last month.  Harrah's is reported to have appointed new advisors in the UK.

Malaysian gambling firm Genting and British property group Richardson Capital last month acquired stakes in the UK based online and land based gambling group totaling about 18%. 

Newspaper reports this week confirm that Harrah's intends to continue seeking strategic options in the UK gambling market and a possible bid for the Rank Group. To this end the company has appointed Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank as advisors. 

Harrah's already own London Clubs International, a casino operator.

The Rank Group is valued at around GBP 350 million and rejected an offer from from Harrah's as well as another bid from its Bingo operations from Duke Street Capital. The Harrah's deal involved injecting most of the London Clubs' casino properties into the Rank Group in return for a 28% stake in the group.

Ironically Harrah's tussled with Genting over London Clubs, when Genting decided to sell its 28% in London Club's to Harrah's instead of counter bidding.

One analysts commented that this process will spell the end for Rank in its current form.

Meanwhile Harrah's itself  is currently the subject of a $17.1billion takeover by private equity groups Abut the market is not expecting the deal to come through.

Many industry observers believe that 2008 will see numerous US based gaming groups trying to obtain a foothold in the European online gambling market through strategic acquisitions which will be interesting to watch.

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