Business News
Bookies’ refinance plans are approved
BOOKIES Neville Porter last
night said the future for the business
remained bright despite
being forced to refinance and restructure
to get it through "very
hard times".
The County Durham company
has sold its UK racecourse pitches
to managing director Neville
Porter for £350,000, who will now
lease the stakes back to the Alternative
Investment Market-listed
business.
The firm, which floated on the
junior stock market just over a
year ago, has been forced to cut
its cost base after a downturn in
business, particularly in its
Chester-le-Street call centre and
online operations, which the
company attributes as a knockon
effect of the global market turmoil.
Mr Porter said the refinancing
move - which was approved by
the shareholders at an extraordinary
general meeting - had been
taken to ensure the long-term
success of the business, but acknowledged
the plc would probably
fall short of its £14m
turnover target for this year.
"We are going through some
very hard times at the minute,
which I think is being felt by the
whole sector - it's being felt by
everyone. The refinancing was
the best way to raise additional
cash while the company still retained
the pitches.
"Instead of us just selling our
assets, the company now gets the
best of both worlds - we have immediate
cash and still keep the
pitches as part of the business.
"We think, and the shareholders
have voted, that this is the
best way of going forward and it
gives the company the best possible
base to build for the future.
"Although we can't talk exact
facts and figures, it's safe to say
that if you want to limit your
losses, you maybe have to run
back on turnover a bit to avoid
your profitability taking such a
hit. We have just got to do the
best we can, but we have got to be
sensible."
Mr Porter said that the company's
stakes at Galway and Leopardstown,
in Ireland, which have
previously been hailed as being
key to Neville Porter's success,
continue to flourish, but no races
will be held at the courses until
later in the year.
"Things there are still very,
very good. We have no complaints
at all about how it's going
- the only thing is that there's
nothing on now until September,
but hopefully we'll have quite a
bit of revenue coming in then,"
said Mr Porter.
8:50am Thursday 27th March 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
