One of the largest British bookmakers, William Hill, has today announced its final results for the fiscal 2016, revealing that its full-year profit corresponded to the company’s revised forecast.
The Interim Chief Executive Officer of William Hill – Philip Bowcock – commented on the company’s performance, calling 2016 a “challenging year” for the bookmaker. Mr. Bowcock said that the company had managed to make considerable operational progress, due to which it had an encouraging start of 2017.
William Hill’s Interim CEO also reminded of the steps taken by the company in order to improve its performance, including Retail management structure modernisation, delivering new products to improve customers experience, making marketing improvements in the Online operations of the company and last, but not least, remaining focused on the bookmaker’s expansion in some key regulated markets across the globe.
The bookmaker announced a net revenue increase of 1% from £1,590.9 million a year earlier to £1,603.8 million for the 52-week period which ended on December 27th, 2016. There was also a 1% rise in the Profit before interest and tax, which reached £225.6 million. According to the company’s official announcement, the operating cash flow was estimated to £265.9 million thanks to strong cash generation.
On the other hand, there was a 10% decline in the company’s Adjusted operating profit, which amounted to £261.5 million at the end of the fiscal 2016. In comparison, the last year’s result of William Hill amounted to £291.4 million.
Future Objectives
William Hill has been facing some difficulties lately, after failing to find a suitable acquisition offer. Up to date, the future of the company remains unclear, after erlier this month, its major shareholder Parvus Asset Management has called the operator to seek for another takeover deal. Along with publishing its financial results for the fiscal 2016, the company revealed its major strategic priorities for the future.
William Hill said that it remains focused on boosting its market share in the UK via further investments in its product and omni-channel offering, as well as in marketing development.
The second large objective set by William Hill for the future was to deliver two major projects in order to support its reinvestment policy and further growth. This goal includes a special transformation programme that is expected to provide approximately £40 million of capital that is planned to be used for reinvestments in marketing, product and technology development. What is more, the company also plans to implement a programme with OpenBet, which would be focused on building an international technology platform over a three-year period.
The leading British bookmaker also said that increasing its international revenue will also remain as one of its major objectives, along with making further investments in order to diverse its offering.
- Author
Olivia Cole
