William Hill PLC Trading Statement (6002T)
January 09 2017 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMWMH
RNS Number : 6002T
William Hill PLC
09 January 2017
William Hill PLC Trading Statement
Underlying trends remain encouraging, sector hit by December
football and racing results
9 January 2017
William Hill PLC (LSE: WMH) (William Hill or the Group)
announces a trading statement for the unaudited 52 weeks ended 27
December 2016.
In the nine weeks since the trading statement on 14 November
2016, wagering trends continued in line with those previously
reported. However, gross win margins were below expectations, in
large part due to unfavourable football and horseracing results
impacting the sector during December.
As a result, the Group's full-year operating profit(1) for 2016
was cGBP260m, at the bottom end of our guided GBP260-280m
range.
Philip Bowcock, Interim CEO, commented: "Importantly, the
improvements we saw in wagering in Online and Australia in the
second half have continued in recent weeks. However, all four
divisions saw customer-friendly results at the back end of the
year, which translated into profits being cGBP20m below our prior
expectations. With key underlying trends continuing to be positive,
the recent run of sporting results have not changed our confidence
in a better performance in 2017."
The 2016 final results will be announced on Friday, 24 February
2017.
This announcement contains inside information. The person
responsible for arranging the release of this announcement on
behalf of William Hill is Philip Bowcock.
1. Operating profit is defined as adjusted profit before
interest and tax. Further detail on adjusted measures is provided
in note 3 to the half-year report.
Enquiries
======================================================
William Philip Bowcock, Interim
Hill PLC Chief Executive Officer
Mark Summerfield, Interim Tel: +44 (0)
Chief Financial Officer 20 8918 3614
Lyndsay Wright, Director Tel: +44 (0)
of IR 20 8918 3607
Ciaran O'Brien, Group Communications
Director
Brunswick Andrew Porter / Oliver Hughes Tel: +44 (0)
/ Chris Buscombe 20 7404 5959
About William Hill PLC
=======================
William Hill, The Home of Betting, is one of the world's leading
betting and gaming companies, employing around 16,000 people.
Founded in 1934, it is one of the UK's largest bookmakers with
around 2,370 licensed betting offices that provide betting
opportunities on a wide range of sporting and non-sporting events,
gaming on machines and numbers-based products including lotteries.
The Group's Online business (www.williamhill.com) is one of the
world's leading online betting and gaming businesses, providing
customers with the opportunity to access William Hill's products
online, through their smartphone or tablet, by telephone and by
text services. William Hill US was established in June 2012 and
provides land-based and mobile sports betting services in Nevada,
and is the exclusive risk manager for the State of Delaware's
sports lottery. William Hill Australia is one of the largest online
betting businesses in Australia after the Group acquired
Sportingbet and tomwaterhouse.com in 2013. It offers sports betting
products online, by telephone and via mobile devices. William Hill
PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Group generates
revenues of cGBP1.6bn a year.
Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements
=====================================================
These results include statements that are, or may be deemed to
be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements
can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology,
including the terms "believes", "estimates", "anticipates",
"expects", "intends", "plans", "goal", "target", "aim", "may",
"will", "would", "could" or "should" or, in each case, their
negative or other variations or comparable terminology. These
forward-looking statements include all matters that are not
historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout
these results and the information incorporated by reference into
these results and include statements regarding the intentions,
beliefs or current expectations of the directors, William Hill or
the Group concerning, amongst other things, the results of
operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth,
strategies and dividend policy of William Hill and the industry in
which it operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and
depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and
may be beyond William Hill's ability to control or predict.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance. The Group's actual results of operations, financial
condition, liquidity, dividend policy and the development of the
industry in which it operates may differ materially from the
impression created by the forward-looking statements contained in
these results and/or the information incorporated by reference into
these results. In addition, even if the results of operations,
financial condition, liquidity and dividend policy of the Group and
the development of the industry in which it operates, are
consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in these
results and/or the information incorporated by reference into these
results, those results or developments may not be indicative of
results or developments in subsequent periods. Other than in
accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including
under the Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014), the Listing Rules,
the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and the Prospectus
Rules), William Hill does not undertake any obligation to update or
revise publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result
of new information, future events or otherwise.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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