Buckingham Bingo up for sale
TROUBLED North West bingo halls operator Buckingham is up for sale again.
The Manchester company, which has nine sites across the region and is currently owned by Barclays Ventures, which has appointed KPMG corporate finance to advise it on its options for exit.
The Bolton-based company was sold by founder Panico Payani in 2005 to London-based private equity firm Alchemy for around £90m. However, its sales were dented by the smoking ban and changes to gambling laws affecting the gaming machines allowed on its sites and its debts piled up.
Alchemy walked away from its investment in 2008 and the firm was passed on to a London-based restructuring division of Barclays Ventures. It is understood that a trade sale is the more likely option for the business.
The company, which attracts more than 1.7 million players a year, is carrying more than £30m of debt, but said to be profitable at an operating level. It employs around 350 staff.
In the year to March 31, 2009, the firm declared a pre-tax loss on the back of a 19 per cent drop in sales to £27.1m.
However, in May it was revealed that Barclays had written off £10m worth of outstanding debt in return for shares in the business. Buckingham Bingo also gained a large VAT rebate following a case brought by the Rank Organisation against Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs over the treatment of VAT payments in its Mecca bingo halls.
Chief executive executive Andy Cunningham said the rebate would help with its ongoing restructuring.
