William Hill Issues Statement on Amaya

WILLIAM HILL ISSUE STATEMENT ON FAILED AMAYA TALKS (Update)

Company confirms it ended talks after it canvassed views of major shareholders.

William Hill has followed Amaya Inc’s lead, distributing a press release in response to the failure of merger talks with the Canadian firm.

A company statement explained that talks had been at an exploratory stage when news of merger talks broke in the media, so much so that due diligence and other work streams underway had been far from complete.

The early talks had been undertaken in line with William Hill’s strategy to grow its digital and International businesses through diversification, the company said, but the Board had ultimately made the decision to walk away from discussions after canvassing views from a number of its major shareholders.

The Group reassures the market that trading continues to be positive in the second half of the year and that it expects full year operating profit to be at the top end of the previously guided GBP 260-280 million range.