EXCLUSIVE: Former HBOS CEO appointed MD of Coral
Coral's year-long search for an MD comes to an end as ex HBOS and Alliance Boots CEO joins - Andy Hornby expected to launch a buy-out of the Gala Coral division with view to selling to a private equity firm.
Serial FTSE 100 board member and former group chief executive of Alliance Boots Andy Hornby is to be appointed MD of Coral eGaming Review can exclusively reveal, ending the operator’s year-long search for a suitable candidate to lead the UK brand.
The £1m-plus earning big hitter, who has led organisations such as Asda, joining the board aged just 32, Halifax, HBOS and lastly group CEO of Alliance Boots, a £23bn revenue making international business with 115,000 staff, will join Coral a year after its previous CEO, Nick Rust, left to join rival Ladbrokes.
A source close to the matter told eGaming Review that 44 year-old Hornby had accepted the role on the proviso that he will lead a future buy-out of the business, separating it from the Gala Coral group, and with a view to it being sold off to a private equity firm. He will be in charge of both retail and online operations.
The Gala Coral group, owner of GalaBingo.co.uk, one of Britain’s biggest bingo sites, a string of bingo halls and casinos, bookmaker Coral as well as Eurobet, is majority owned by four large US private equity houses including Apollo, Cerberus, Park Square and York Capital Management that completed a complex restructuring of the company in June last year in a bid to lower its high debt levels.
Simon Wykes, former MD of Mecca Bingo is currently MD of Gala Bingo, while Mark Sergeant leads Gala Casino. Both men were appointed in May last year.
Former Marks & Spencer director Carl Leaver was hired in early November last year to head up the group, but it is yet to be seen how he and the new Coral chief will work side-by-side, especially considering Hornby’s heavyweight Plc and FTSE 100 board experience.
Hornby’s resignation at HBOS is the only blot on his otherwise highly impressive CV, and previous to his demise during the heat of the financial crisis, he was viewed as one of Britain’s brightest executive prospects.
With the banking group close to bankruptcy in September 2008 and its takeover by rival Lloyds TSB completed Hornby was forced to step down. Lloyds later said HBOS had made a pre-tax loss in excess of £10.8bn in 2008, however despite admitting along with reviled former CEO of RBS Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin that he had no banking qualifications, Hornby was retained as a consultant.
He is said to have left his last £1m post at Alliance Boots with no pay off saying that after “five intense years” as CEO of two major companies he needed a “few months break”.