Following on from the rights issue carried out by William Hill in February 2009 (at a discount to market value of an eye-watering 57%), Ladbrokes have recently announced a rights issue raising about £275m at a discount to market value of about 50%, reducing their borrowings to approximately £600m. Who could have predicted that these companies, so powerful and popular a couple of years ago, would have to take these measures to strengthen their Balance Sheets so soon after the “boom”.

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