Supplier News
Spain – Codere to focus on Sports Betting in Spain and expand into Italy
By Phil - 7 October 2016
Spanish multinational Codere has announced that it will focus its growth initiatives in Spain around sports betting while it will remain attentive to the local market via the purchase of additional slot machines.
The company is making its plans public as part of a “road show” with investors which will be held next Monday. The announcement was sent to The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain.
Codere has also announced that it is seeking to purchase slot parlours and launch sports betting in Italy while in Mexico it plans to deploy a strategy focused on acquisitions. In addition according to a press release published on Tuesday (March 4th), CODERE has signed an agreement with Comar Group (Grupo Comar), which is the leading operator of private gaming in Galicia. The agreement will allow both companies to operate sports betting jointly.
According to the statement this agreement means that Codere will strengthen its presence in this community, as a result of the “enormous expansion Comar has made in Galicia during its more than three decades of history in the private gaming sector.” The agreement carries “a high strategic value for both companies, as it will provide continuity to a number of other projects already developed in other communities.” Both companies have worked together in Galicia since 2013. Comar was founded in 1984. At present, it consists of 60 companies operating in both national and international markets and in a wide range of activities including casinos, bingo halls, slot parlours as well as tourism (hotels, restaurants), and property development
In August Codere reported that group turnover for the first half of this year stood €734.3m – 8.9 per cent less than in the same period in 2015 as a result of the devaluation of the Argentine peso (63 per cent) and the Mexican peso (19 per cent) compared to the Euro. This decline however was partially offset by revenue growth in Italy (€27.4m) and Spain (€9.1m). In Argentina the company achieved revenues of €256.8m in the first six months of 2016 – 21.4 per cent less than the same period of 2015, due to the depreciation of the Argentine peso against the euro.
However the company recorded a loss of €1,137.3m in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year when the company reported losses of €48.7m as a result of the restructuring of the group’s balance sheet . In September 2014 it was announced that Codere had managed to avoid insolvency which could have risked its licences by striking an agreement with creditors to restructure €1.1bn of debt. Under the terms of the deal, Codere’s creditors swapped existing debt for €675m in newly issued bonds and a €253m loan. Bondholders also swapped €636m worth of debt for a 97.78 per cent equity stake in the company.
