Ladbrokes: Ruling of the Takeover Appeal Board

On April 22, 2016 Mr. Desmond, submitted a notice of appeal to the Takeover Appeal Board in respect of the Hearings Committee's ruling, and on May 16, 2016 the Takeover Appeal Board, consisting of Lord Collins, Sir John Mummery and Mr Edward Walker-Arnott heard the three appeals. At the conclusion of the hearing the Board announced that the appeals would be dismissed, for reasons to be given later. Because some of the parties then indicated that they might wish to make submissions that confidential or commercially sensitive information should be redacted from the published decision pursuant to Rule 2.21 of the Rules of the Board, the decision was supplied to the parties in draft on June 6, 2016. As a result, some minor changes were made which do not affect the substance of the reasoning, which is set out below. The ruling of the Hearings Committee of December 14, 2015, the ruling of the Chairman of the Hearings Committee of February 17, 2016 and the ruling of the Hearings Committee dated April 20, 2016 are annexed hereto, as Annexures 1 to 3 respectively.