Hilton ditches its casinos

After the sell-off, Hilton will focus on its hotel business

Hilton, the hotel and leisure firm, has sold its Ladbroke Casinos business to the UK's biggest bingo operator Gala for £235m ($347m).

Gala will add 29 UK-based casinos to its impressive array of 175 bingo halls scattered throughout the country.

Hilton says it will use the extra cash raised from the sale to reduce debts and further expand its core assets of chains of hotels and betting shops.

Shares in Hilton gained 4% on Friday morning, following news of the sell-off, before drifting down later to end the day 1.5p higher at 206.5p.

Reshuffling

"We believe we have achieved good value and will continue to focus on our two long-term businesses of hotels and betting," said David Michels, Hilton chief executive.

The sell-off of casinos is part of a wider reshuffling of Hilton's international business portfolio.

The UK leisure group also announced on Friday that it has bought the companies which own the Capital Centre games arcade in Sydney, Australia for £70m, and sold-off some of its US gambling assets for $53m

Hilton first received an unsolicited approach to buy the chain of casinos from privately-owned Gala in October.