Bookmaker is boosted by sporting surprises
LADBROKES Coral has cheered a bumper Cheltenham Festival and a string of sporting surprises, much to the irritation of punters.
Having suffered ‘the worst Cheltenham Festival in living memory’ last year when victories for a string of favourites resulted in huge payouts to racing fans, the bookmaker said this year’s event was ‘very positive’.
Sizing John’s shock victory in the Gold Cup was the icing on the cake for Ladbrokes boss Jim Mullen as 23 of the 28 races went the bookie’s way.
Ladbrokes, which completed its £2.3bn merger with Coral in November, also benefited from Roger Federer’s victory at the Australian Open tennis tournament and FA Cup runs for non-league Sutton United and Lincoln City.
The update on this year’s trading came as Ladbrokes reported an 11pc rise in revenues for 2016 to £2.4bn and a 22pc rise in operating profit to £264.3m. But it posted an overall loss of £ 204.3m, mainly due to one-off merger costs.
Mullen said: ‘This is a very successful start for the Ladbrokes Coral group.’
The firm announced a fullyear dividend of 3p. Shares fell 1.7pc, or 2.3p, to 133p. THE family behind the Ask, Garfunkel’s and Prezzo restaurants is more than £10m poorer after shares in their latest venture fell nearly 40pc.
Tasty, which owns the Dim T and Wildwood brands, posted annual losses of £88,000 having made profits of £3.1m the year before.
Backed and run by members of the Kaye family, Tasty said trading had ‘proved challenging and the directors are now expecting headline operating profit for 2017 to be below that achieved in 2016’.
Shares fell 38.6pc, or 44p, to 70p – wiping millions off the value of the Kayes’ stock. Samuel Kaye, 43, chief executive, saw £4.8m lost from the value of his shares while brother Adam, 46, a director, lost £3.2m. Other members of the family also lost out, taking total losses to £10.2m.
The Kayes have a long established history in the restaurant industry. Brothers Reginald and Philip opened the Golden Egg restaurant chain, Deep Pan Pizza and Garfunkel’s in the 1960s, inspiring the next generation, Adam, Sam and Jonathan, to set up Ask, Zizzi and Prezzo.