William Hill online gamble paying off
WILLIAM Hill said its online operations picked up the slack on the High Street, helping the firm to report rising revenues.
Profit before tax was down 3pc to £187.4m, but would have been up 9pc stripping out a £40m writedown on the value of the firm’s telephone business.
Boss Ralph Topping is looking forward to a year that should see the bookmaker (down 3p to 230.5p) finally win a licence to operate in the US.
He is also expected to complete the buyout of a 29pc of William Hill Online, held by Israeli firm Playtech, after longrunning tensions between the two firms eased.
The online division delivered a second successive year of revenues up more than 20pc and Topping expects further rises through acquisitions and organic growth. BRITAIN’S battered public finances are in better shape than expected – but there is a long way to go before they are returned to health.
Official figures this week showed the Treasury spent less money than it received in January, giving a rare surplus of £7.8bn, the best figure for four years.
The government has now borrowed £93.5bn in the first 10 months of the tax year, down from £109.1bn in the same period of last year.
It puts Chancellor George Osborne well ahead of his target of reducing the annual deficit from a record £156bn under Labour and £136bn last year to £127bn this time around.
Economists reckon he could beat it by £10bn.