Caesars Entertainment ONLY Bidder For William Hill
Caesars Entertainment has a lock on the bidding for UK Bookmaker William Hill according to recent reports. The US Casino giant is considering a bid for the bookmaker of 272p per share valuing the company at £2.9 billion, the William Hill board of directors said that if such a bid came in then they would recommend it to their shareholders.
When the news was rumoured of the bid before close on Friday 25th September shares in William Hill rose to 312p per share but have now gone back to previous numbers at 273p a share, the reason for the fall is that investors fear that should the other runner in for William Hill Apollo counters the bid by Caesars share value will go down.
The reason for this is that Caesars Entertainment who own a 20% stake in William Hill US business, has said that should Apollo counter and ultimately win the bidding war for the bookmaker it would remove William Hill from all its casinos as its sports book operator.
That move should it happen would drastically devalue William Hill as it has worked hard to build up a growing business in the sports betting market in the US. It is unclear if Apollo will now counter at all, insiders believe that there is no win scenario for a bid from Apollo even thou the valuation for William Hill is severely undervalued should Apollo bid they would significantly reduce the value of the company they are bidding for given Caesar stance.
So it seems that Caesars will have a clear run at a devalued asset in William Hill and analysts believe that shares in William Hill could go as high as 400p should that come to pass. Indeed Caesars are already saying that should they confirm the bid and William Hill shareholders accept which is expected then the deal would be completed in the second quarter of 2021.
