Bookmaker and one-time boxing promoter, Barney Eastwood, has sold his betting shop business to London-quoted Ladbrokes in a deal worth €180 million to his family, writes Barry O'Halloran.
Ladbrokes said yesterday that it had bought the 54-shop Eastwood betting-shop chain for £117.5 million sterling (€157.6 million) in cash.
Mr Eastwood told The Irish Timesyesterday that under the deal's terms, he will continue to own most of the properties involved, with an option to lease them to Ladbrokes or to lease them to another landlord.
The leaseholds are worth a further £17.5 million sterling, bringing the total value of the business and its properties to £135 million, or €181 million.
Mr Eastwood said that he believed that the time was right to sell the business and that Ladbrokes could bring it to a new level.
He added that Ladbrokes executive, Alan Ross, had assured him that none of the chain's 300 staff would lose their jobs as a result of the deal.
Mr Eastwood is in his 76th year, but is not planning to stop working. He is working on a number of commercial property projects in Britain with his family. "I'm going to be paying more attention to that," he said.
Mr Eastwood has been involved in boxing since childhood and over 20 years managed a number of world champions, including Venezuelan Christano Espana, British boxer, Paul Hodkinson and Dave "Boy" McAuley from Antrim.
But he is best-known as the manager and promoter behind Irish world champion featherweight boxer, Barry McGuigan, a relationship that ended in the English high court.
The boxer's habit of thanking him effusively after every victory inspired the late comedian, Dermot Morgan, to record a song Thank you very much Mr Eastwood, which reached number one in 1986, the year Mr McGuigan won his title.
Ladbrokes will be thanking Mr Eastwood very much when it takes over the business. The deal is set to add close to €15 million in earnings to the chain's Irish operations. The 54 shops' turnover is understood to be more than €130 million.
The move will boost the British chain's presence to 217 shops throughout Ireland, making it the biggest bookmaker by shop numbers in the country.
A spokesman yesterday said that the company plans to spend £4 million refitting and rebranding the shops.
Rebranding is likely to begin immediately and be completed within four months while the refit will take 15 months.
"We're very pleased as it's a very good business," the spokesman said.
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