Major Rank Group shareholder reduces stake

A major shareholder in Rank Group has reduced its stake in the gaming firm this morning, selling off approximately 13% of the company’s entire issued share capital in a placing.

In a statement to the market early this morning, Malaysian investment firm GuoLine Overseas, a subsidiary of Hong Leong Company Berhad, said it was to sell approximately 50 million ordinary shares in the gaming group.

GuoLine appointed brokerage firm Peel Hunt to manage the placing which was set to close no later than 5pm today, however by 9:30am the entire placing had been snapped up by institutional investors.

The shares were purchased at a placing price of 185p per share and GuoLine raised gross proceeds of approximately £92.5m, reducing its stake in Rank to around 56% of the firm’s entire issued ordinary share capital.

GuoLine said the placing would significantly increase the free float in Rank and is expected to improve liquidity in Rank shares.

The placing comes a month after Rank reported that its H1 digital profits had risen 75% ahead of a platform switch that will see the group’s online offerings migrate to Bede Gaming’s software as part of a digital makeover first announced last year.

Rank’s share price has remained stable in early morning trading and stands at 185p at the time of writing.