Competition Commission gives Rank green light to acquire 19 casinos

FTSE 250-listed European gaming business Rank Group has received the green light from the Competition Commission to acquire a raft of casinos from Gala Coral Group.

In May 2012, Rank announced that it had conditionally agreed to acquire Gala Casinos from Gala Coral with 23 casinos earmarked for purchase and three non-operating casino licences.

At that point, the company stated that it anticipated the possibility of the Office of Fair Trading requiring a limited number of casinos to be excluded from the proposed acquisition. However, the Office of Fair Trading instead referred the whole proposed acquisition to the Competition Commission which ordered an in-depth merger review lasting seven months.

Upon completion of its review, Rank said the Commission had given it the green light to buy 19 of the 23 casinos it originally planned to buy subject to a few conditions.

Rank and Gala Coral are now continuing their discussions in relation to setting up a revised proposed acquisition agreement.

Rank's share price was down 2.87% to 162.60p at 08:33 on Tuesday.

MF