英国最大的私人博彩公司亏损

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The Guardian, Tuesday December 9 2008
Gala Coral handicapped by red tape and red ink

Gala Coral, one of Britain's largest private equity-owned employers, has seen losses more than treble as trading at its casino and bingo divisions has continued to slow sharply, leaving the business straining to service its huge debts.

Despite an additional £124m cash injection from private equity backers Permira, Cinven and Candover, the company made a pre-tax loss for the 12 months to September 27 of £397m. Much of the loss was made up of writedowns and redundancy costs as the group closed about 10% of its bingo clubs and casinos. More cost cutting moves and job losses are planned.

Gala's difficulties stem from a string of unexpected tax and regulatory changes that have hit the casino and bingo industries, amplifying the impact of the recession. In particular, the smoking ban in public places, caps on bingo hall slot machines and a surprise jump in taxation on provincial casinos have hurt Gala.

The company's net debt at the year end rose to £4.4bn, compared with £4.2bn 12 months earlier. Interest payable by Gala rose 12% to £491m, while cashflow from operations fell 20% to £314m.

Debt investors, who dominate Gala's ownership structure, are closely assessing the group's capacity to service its debt. Top-line operating profit of £362m is 7.51 times year-end net bank debt. In September 2007 the figure was 7.07, suggesting pressure on the heavily borrowed business has continued to mount.

Deputy chairman Neil Goulden met Gala's lending banks this week, insisting the group was on track to repay £80m of debt that matures during the year without eroding cash reserves of £125m. This, he told them, will leave the group well positioned to repay £150m of debt that falls due the following year.

Gary Hughes, chief financial officer, insisted Gala did not come close to breaching banking covenants during the year, but in May it negotiated a deal with lenders to reset loan covenants after the firm's three private equity backers agreed to inject £124m to retire some of Gala Coral's ballooning debt early. As a result, bank debt fell slightly to £2.7bn while "investor-funded debt" increased to £1.6bn.

A resilient performance from the group's betting shop division leaves Coral accounting of two in every three pounds of operating profit. A year ago Coral accounted for half of group operating profits.