William Hill Reject Second Rank/888 Takeover Bid

A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that a consortium made up of 888 and Rank Group were looking to buy a majority shareholding in UK bookmaking giant William Hill. The consortium's first £3.6bn offer was rejected by William Hill who's Chairman, Gareth Davis called the offer "highly opportunistic".

A second, larger bid made yesterday has today also been dismissed by William Hill who still believe the consortium is considerably undervaluing the company.

Although the revised offer maintained the 199p per share cash offer the consortium this time upped the stock element of the deal so that William Hill shareholders would own 48.8 per cent of the new business.

The consortium and William Hill, however, cannot seem to agree on what the offer genuinely means in terms of the actual value they are placing on the business with the consortium saying that the original offer valued Will Hill at 364p per share and that the new offer launched on Sunday valued it at £3.94 a share. Conversely, using what a consortium insider has called some "creative mathematics" William Hill say the first bid valued them at 339p per share and the revised offer at 352p per share before synergy benefits.

As such Davis has once again reiterated his position, saying, "This revised proposal continues to substantially undervalue the company and the cash element of the proposal has not changed.Therefore, the board sees no merit in engaging. As we have said before, this is highly opportunistic and complex and does not enhance the strategic positioning of William Hill."