Buyout hopes for Yates’s failed betting business

WORKERS at the €6 million in debt, failed Celtic Bookmakers organisation were given a reprieve this week when they learned there has been interest shown in the company’s betting offices.

To date, receivers Hughes Blake Accountants have received over 40 expressions of interest to buy out part or all of Celtic Bookmakers’ 47-shop business empire.

Co-owner Ivan Yates put his home (which has been in the family for four generations) and his 78-year-old mother’s home in Wexford as collateral for loans to expand his and wife Deirdre’s betting empire only for it to come crashing down around them.

Receiver Neil Hughes said he is hopeful for the business, having received over 40 expressions of interest from both big and small investors.

Mr Hughes said: “We have been very, very pleased with the level of interest we have received from outside parties who wish to buy the shops.”

Mr Hughes said his position as a receiver would be greatly enhanced if the businesses were sold off as soon as possible.

“The aim is to try to recoup as much as possible for AIB and to save as many jobs as possible.”

Mr Hughes said local parties have also expressed an interest in buying Celtic Bookmakers’ shops.

“People are looking at the shop and saying ‘I could give that bookmaker a go’.”

Moving to assure customers with outstanding bets, he said all bets will be honoured and said there is adequate working capital available for the period of the receivership to ensure that this can be done.

Established in Wexford in 1987, Mr Yates said his recent decision to rapidly expand the company, by acquiring a number of other independent bookmakers, was a “commercial disaster” and had ultimately caused its demise.

“I take full, personal responsibility for this commercial disaster. There is no hiding place for me,” the former Fine Gael minister said.