Coral tops KPMG Top Track 100 list |
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Mon, 27 Jun 2005 03:05
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The Sunday Times KPMG Top Track 100 list has betting giant Coral Eurobet at the top of the heap. The betting and gaming firm garnered a £5.4bn profit to emerge as the top private company in the UK.
Last year’s topper retailer John Lewis has slipped to the second place in the latest list while fourth-placed cash-and-carry firm Booker earned top marks as the highest placed newcomer. Booker's profits stood at an impressive £3.4bn.
Coral Eurobet's UK arm Coral is an Essex-based Internet and betting firm. It was established in 1926. It owns over 1,100 betting outlets across the UK. It was acquired three years ago by Charterhouse in a deal worth £860m. It is estimated that two-thirds of its online revenue comes from outside the UK. This year the total operating profits have crossed £145m.
Some of the other new entrants in this list were Iceland, which was placed at the 21st position and the AA, which lorded over the 40th spot. Furniture retailer DFS made an entry into the list at the 60th position. To recall, DFS was taken off the London Stock Exchange by its founder Lord Kirkham in September 2004. Done Brothers Bookmakers and Gala Group are the two other betting firms on the list.
Commenting on these figures, Mel Egglenton, head of middle market at KPMG said, "The league table also shows that management are increasingly involved as stakeholders in their business and nearly half of the entire 100 companies are private-equity backed. We expect this trend to continue in years to come." He added that these private companies were "vital to the success of the economy".
The combined sales of these 100 companies are pegged at £97bn. They were responsible for employing almost 930,000 people in their latest financial year.
The KPMG list is compiled by the research company Fast Track and lists the top 100 companies that are not on the stock exchanges.
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