Bidders have already stepped forward to make their interest known, including a French rival firm Lucien Barriere and a management buy-out team. The move to sell the company, initiated by its US parent Caesars Entertainment, came after Rank Group, which had made a direct approach for LCI, walked away.
It is believed Caesars is to separately sell off LCI’s Emerald Resort & Casino in South Africa. Worth up to us$ 94.8 million, the site has attracted interest from its former management. The rest of the business has been valued at around us$ 158 million, and comprises ten casinos in the UK, four of which are in London, and a further two in Cairo.
Caesars purchased LCI for almost double us$ 253 million, the amount that it is hoping to sell it at now, in 2006. The move was intended to take advantage of the gambling deregulation in Britain at the time.