Brains behind bingo site pocket £12m

THE men behind gambling site Foxy Bingo have made £12.3m by selling shares granted in a longterm investment plan.

Chief executive Kenneth Alexander, 47, sold around 977,500 shares in Foxy Bingo owner GVC Holdings at 841p each, making £8.2m, while chairman Lee Feldman, 48, earned £4.1m by selling 488,782.

Alexander now has 1.9m shares in GVC, equivalent to a 0.6pc stake in the company, and Feldman owns 734,000, or a 0.2pc stake, in the Isle of Man firm.

This year it hired Hollywood actress Heather Graham, 47, pictured – star of The Hangover – as the face of Foxy Bingo.

Shares fell 1.1pc, or 9.5p, to 822.5p yesterday. ONe of Britain’s biggest wholesalers is on the brink of a takeover after cigarette firm Imperial Brands injected emergency cash to help pay its debts. Palmer & harvey is the country’s fifth largest privately owned firm, with all shares held by its staff. Its 4,000 employees are now waiting to discover whether a deal can be reached.

The firm delivers 12,000 products to 90,000 stores across the country, ranging from corner shops and petrol stations to supermarkets, and has a long-running partnership with tobacco companies.

But margins in the industry are tight, and the business has struggled to make money for years.

There are also questions over its vital relationship with Tesco, which accounts for 40pc of revenues. The supermarket is buying rival wholesaler Booker for £3.7bn, and it is feared this deal will hit P&h hard if Tesco switches allegiance.

Imperial – which makes Gauloises and Davidoff cigarettes – lent P&h £30m in a refinancing deal earlier this year to keep it afloat. Japan Tobacco International also loaned P&h £30m.

Fresh bills are due on Saturday, and it is understood the two firms have vowed to pump in extra cash to help P&h stay afloat.

This buys time for the wholesaler to agree a rescue deal with private equity firm the Carlyle Group. Any rescue