Two Stanleybet firms in administration
TWO betting shop businesses which were a joint venture between the family of the late Lord Steinberg and the purchaser of his Stanleybet betting shops empire have been placed into administration.
Kerry Bailey and Matthew Gibson from the Manchester office of accountancy firm PKF have been appointed as joint administrators to Stanleybet UK Investments and Stanley Overseas Investments.
Stanleybet UK Investments owned around two-thirds of a Polish betting shop business. Both it and the Overseas Investments business were started as a joint venture business between Cheshire-based Lord Steinberg, who died in 2009, and Giovanni Garsi, who bought his UK-based chain of betting shops in 2007.
An article in Monday’s Guardian newspaper states that a £20m High Court dispute has begun between Stanleybet and Lord Steinberg’s children, with the company alleging that Lord Steinberg had given a £20m guarantee to fund the Polish betting shop business – something which the Steinberg family have disputed.
The late Lord Steinberg, originally from Northern Ireland, built up Liverpool-based Stanley from scratch into one of the country’s largest gaming companies.
PKF this morning confirmed its appointment to the businesses, which it said were both non-trading holding companies which each owned a third of the shares in Star-Typ Sport Zakłady Wzajemme spółka z.o.o – a company which operates about 385 betting shops across Poland as well as some online betting sites.
It added that they have been carrying out an investigation into the financial position of Star-Typ Sport and were “working with key stakeholders to ascertain the value of the Polish company”.
It added that the company was now being marketed “with a view to achieving a disposal as soon as possible” in order to return money to UK creditors.
