William Hill hits winning streak

WILLIAM Hill, the UK’s second-biggest betting shop chain, today said it has made an encouraging start to 2004 after profits soared 43 per cent last year.

The company, which runs around 1600 betting shops and offers telephone and online gambling, said pre-tax profits before finance charges rose to £201.7 million in the year to December 30, up from £141.4m for the previous 12-month period.

William Hill, ranked second behind Hilton Group’s Ladbrokes chain in the number of UK betting shops it runs, also said its gross win - the amount of cash lost by punters - rose 24 per cent to £654.3m last year, and was up 17 per cent in the eight weeks to February 24.

Overall, turnover jumped 77 per cent to £5.95 billion, up from £3.36bn a year earlier.

The group also said that it planned to buy back as much as ten per cent of its shares at its next annual general meeting as part of an ongoing review to return capital to shareholders.

Chairman Charles Scott said: "William Hill has continued to deliver significant profit growth in 2003 and is taking steps to return value to shareholders."

He said the group proposed a full-year dividend of 12.5p per share, an increase of 44 per cent over the previous year’s payout.

Gross win from fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and amusement machines almost doubled to £100.5m, from £59.0m last time.

Chief executive David Harding said the FOBT roll-out accelerated from April 2003 and will become less of a factor in driving gross win growth later this year.

Shares in William Hill, which floated in 2002, have outperformed the FTSE-100 index by over 90 per cent and other UK leisure shares by around 50 per cent over the past year.