GVC poaches Paul Miles from Wonga as company targets 2017 dividend payouts

Paul Miles

London FTSE-listed online gambling operator GVC Holdings Plc (GVC) has this morning announced that Group Chief Financial Officer Richard Cooper is set to step down from its board in February 2017.

GVC governance informed that Cooper has decided to leave the company in order to ‘pursue private business interests’.

The operator has found a direct replacement for Cooper, confirming that Paul Miles current CFO of payday lender Wonga has agreed to join the firm as of February 2017.

GVC governance thanked Cooper for his tenure as Group CFO, stating that he had played an integral part in forming the newly listed FTSE-250 operator, playing a lead role in GVC’s 2015 acquisition of bwin.party Entertainment.

Confirming the executive appointment of Paul Miles as CFO this morning, Lee Feldman GVC Non-Executive Chairman, stated:

“I’m delighted that Paul will be joining us and feel his skills and experience are an ideal match for a business of our international scale and ambition. Richard has been a key part of the GVC story over the past eight years and I personally would like to thank him for his significant contribution and wish him all the very best for the future.”

Miles joins GVC as the operator targets €125 million in synergy savings by the end of 2017. Presenting its ‘audited’ H1 2016 performance, GVC governance would further state that the company plans to resume dividend payments for investors in 2017, stating that the enlarged group would have higher potential of ‘organic growth’

Following a strong Euro 2016 performance, GVC posted half-year 2016 group profits of €51 million with group revenues hitting the + €2 billion (H1 2015: €820 million).

A confident Kenneth Alexander, GVC CEO stated that his merged company was on target to meet all full-year 2016 expectations.

“I am delighted to report another period of significant growth. It is GVC’s combination of hardworking, talented people and unique proprietary technology platform that has allowed us to achieve so much in such a short period.” Alexander detailed

“The Group operates in a highly competitive, increasingly regulated and taxed environment, GVC has never been better placed to face these challenges. Indeed, we believe the organic growth potential of the Group is now greater than originally anticipated at the time of the bwin.party transaction acquisition”