Yahoo News William Hill advisers in line for £165m jackpot
Investment bankers, lawyers and accountants are in line for more than £165m of fees if William Hill investors vote through a takeover swoop by US casino titan Caesars Entertainments next month.
New documents reveal the deal will trigger major payouts for firms including Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Citigroup if it goes ahead. William Hill is handing its advisers £41m, while Caesars will cough up as much as £124m.
Meanwhile, the British bookmaker's boss Ulrik Bengtsson and its finance chief Matthew Ashley will share £2.1m in cash as part of an arrangement to stop them leaving after the takeover. Mr Bengtsson took charge a year ago and Mr Ashley started in May this year.
The pair also own William Hill shares that will be worth more than £5m if the deal goes through.
Shareholders in the FTSE 250 bookmaker will vote on the £2.9bn deal on Nov 19, it was announced on Monday.
Chairman Roger Devlin reiterated the board’s decision to back the 272p-a-share takeover. He said that handing over control to the Las Vegas casino behemoth will allow the company to maximise growth in the US, which is in the process of repealing a decades-long ban on sports betting.
Mr Devlin also warned that failure to accept Caesars' approach would leave shareholders at risk of a potential crackdown by regulators in the firm's UK and European markets, as well as further coronavirus disruption to live sport.
The deal must be backed by three-quarters of investors if it is to go ahead.
Hopes of a bidding war for William Hill have so far failed to materialise. US private equity firm Apollo Management - one of the world’s biggest buyout funds - has until November 12 to formally lodge a competing bid after expressing interest in a deal.
Fred Done, the billionaire founder of Betfred, could yet play a pivotal role. He began stakebuilding in William Hill last year and is now one its biggest shareholders.
Caesars has made it clear that it is not interested in William Hill’s non-US operations and plans to sell them once the takeover is complete.
Mr Done has retained financial advisers from Lazard as he narrows his interest down to William Hill’s operations closer to home.
888 Holdings has also been linked to a bid for William Hill’s European arm.
The offer documents included a commitment by Caesars not to shut any of William Hill’s 1,400 betting shops other than those already earmarked by bosses for closure as a result of the pandemic.
However, they also indicated that once non-US operations have been sold off, William Hill’s headquarters could be moved across the Atlantic.
The adviser bonanza is a rare City payday after a plunge in dealmaking activity when the pandemic hit.
The advisers will now focus on supporting Mr Devlin and Mr Bengtsson in their conversations to convince shareholders of the merits of the deal.
William Hill rejected a takeover approach by 888 and Rank in the summer of 2016 before short-lived plans to merge with Canadian firm Amaya collapsed later in the same year.
Since then the UK bookie has been leapfrogged by its rivals, with the likes of GVC acquiring Ladbrokes Coral and what was known as Paddy Power Betfair merging with Stars Group, the Canadian owner of Sky Bet.
