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GVC hits back at claims of 'lack of transparency' over Turkish unit disposal

Published: 16:00 08 Jul 2019 BST

ladbrokes
GVC completed its £3.2bn takeover of Ladbrokes Coral Group in 2018

GVC Holdings PLC (LON:GVC) has hit back at a media report saying the gaming company faces questions over its corporate governance related to the 2017 disposal of its Turkish operations.

According to The Sunday Times, GVC offloaded its unregulated Turkish unit to a business partner of the Ladbrokes owner’s chief executive.

The news drew criticism from campaigners, who attacked a “lack of transparency” at GVC.

In late 2017, GVC announced that it had completed the sale of the division to Ropso Malta, a company backed by investors who already provided IT services to the business.

The deal was worth up to €150mln over five years but GVC ended up waiving the payments to prevent its involvement in the Turkish market from scuppering its £3.2bn cash-and-shares takeover of Ladbrokes Coral Group.

Gambling operators cannot be trusted, says Labour MP

The Sunday Times reported that Ron Watts, one of the three owners of Ropso Malta, now called Dochandoris, co-owns a stud farm in Scotland with GVC boss Kenny Alexander.

Watts and Alexander are both directors of Kenron Ltd, owner of New Hall Stud in Ayrshire, and previously worked with each other at Sportingbet almost 20 years ago.

“They [gambling operators] cannot be trusted,” said Carolyn Harris, Labour MP and chairwoman of the Gambling-Related Harm all-party parliamentary group.

“If they haven’t got any transparency on their business dealings, I don’t believe they are as committed to cleaning up their act as they would have us believe.”

Details of deal were 'fully disclosed', GVC insists 

GVC insisted on Monday that the details of the deal were fully disclosed at the time and the disposal was subject to an “arms-length competitive process”, overseen by Houlihan Lokey investment bank.

“The board today re-iterates the fact that subsequent to the disposal of the group's Turkish-facing business, GVC has no activity either directly or indirectly linked to the Turkish market,” GVC said.

“Furthermore, the board also categorically refutes suggestions that the group, or senior management, continue to benefit from any operations servicing the Turkish market.

“The business continues to perform strongly and is focused on taking a market leading position in the US and other regulated markets.”

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