Hills Agree Stanley Deal Stanley Leisure has agreed the sale of its retail bookmaking operations to William Hill for £504 million. The addition of its 624 betting offices will take William Hill´s estate to around 2,250 shops, making the Leeds firm the country´s biggest high street retail bookmaker. The operations subject to the transaction comprise Stanley´s retail betting assets in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Jersey and the Isle of Man. Stanley´s International, internet and telebetting operations are not included in the deal. William Hill´s board believes that 'any potential competition issues will not be material in the overall context of the transaction'. David Hood, director of public relations for William Hill, said: 'We don´t foresee any problems because the trading conditions have changed considerably since 1998, which was the year Ladbrokes tried to take over Coral. 'There are a lot more internet businesses, a lot more telephone businesses and this doesn´t infringe the 25 per cent high street guideline that was imposed by the Monopolies and Mergers at that time. 'It would give us approximately 2,250 shops. There may be a few that are in close proximity to William Hill premises. 'Until such time as a full review of the state is taken we won´t know which retail operations we would decide to discard. 'In terms of streamlining we don´t anticipate any enforcement by the Office of Fair Trading, it will be a voluntary sale.' The Stanley deal is expected to be completed in 30 days. Hood continued: 'Should that go ahead without any problems the completion of the rebranding and the updating of the shops will take roughly six months. 'Hills are very strong in the South, South East London, moving up the east coast of England and into Scotland. 'In the North West where Stanley is particularly strong we have quite a minimal presence. 'It´s a natural fit to our estate and it actually allows us to have a uniform coverage all over the country. 'It also gives William Hill a presence in Northern Ireland, Ireland and the Channel Islands.' Ladbrokes currently have 1,956 betting shops in the United Kingdom, 141 in Ireland and eight in the Channel Islands. Their head of public relations Ciaran O´Brien said: 'We are currently pursuing an acquisition strategy in the UK. 'Basically Stanley didn´t fit into our strategy of right shop, right location, right price.' ? PA Sport
