William Hill is to join the ranks of the largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange by market capitalisation on Wednesday 1 May.
The UK’s largest bookmaker enters the FTSE 100 index due to the recent completion of mining company Xstrata’s merger with Glencore.
Hill’s shares hit a 52-week high of 437p per share in trading today. Shares closed at 431p on Friday, valuing the company at approximately £3.72bn.
CEO Ralph Topping has set a target for the betting and gaming group to become a £5bn business within three to five years, warning analysts at the recent Q1 earnings call that: “I never say those kinds of things lightly”.
The Hill’s chief has argued that the US market, where the bookmaker completed a £31m takeover of three sportsbooks in Nevada last summer, “will offer us that chance for that step-up”.
The bookmaker also completed a £459m takeover of Sportingbet’s market-leading Australian division in March, a deal which also included a six-month call option on Sportingbet’s Miapuesta-branded business in Spain, where the regulator recently cleared the way for the launch of online slots.
The company’s booming online and mobile business helped Hill’s deliver an 8% rise in group operating profit in Q1.
Profit from its flagship online division during the first 13 weeks of the year was up 13%, with online net revenue up an impressive 21%. Sportsbook stakes for the first time outstripped those taken over the counter in the bookie’s shops.
Mobile sportsbook also consistently exceeded Topping’s previously stated target of £15m a week, putting it on track to account for 40% of sportsbook revenues by the end of the year.
Article written by Katy Stirland
