Guoco’s offer for casino and bingo hall operator Rank Group has gone unconditional, prompting Panmure Gordon to put its ‘buy’ rating and target price of 204p on Rank under review, saying that this is a very disappointing outcome.

On 6 May 2011, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guoco Group Limited ("Guoco"), announced the acquisition of 45,251,203 of Rank Shares, representing approximately 11.6 percent at 150p per share. The Acquisition increased Guoco's beneficial interest in Rank to 159,486,902 shares, representing approximately 40.8 percent of Rank's issued share capital.

Rank revealed today that Guoco’s 150p per share offer has received additional 15.6% acceptances and has been declared as unconditional, as Guoco now owns 56.4% of the issued share capital.

“This is a very disappointing outcome but as we noted on 9 May whilst Guoco said this was not a hostile move, we failed to see how it could not be interpreted as one,” said analyst James Cooke.

Both Rank and various brokers had previously suggested that the offer “significantly undervalues” the group.

Given the prospects of the Rank group and the efforts it is putting into growing both the bingo and casino operations those supporting the Guoco offer may regret the decision.

“We note that the implied enterprise value of circa £524m does not even represent fair value for the casino division alone, which we value at £593m,” Cooke added.

"Investors with long memories will remember a similar scenario involving Guoco when it bought Thistle Hotels in 2003. The Thistle chief executive was then Ian Burke, now CEO of Rank."

Shareholders will no doubt be looking at the fact that in the current climate many UK listed companies are potentially worth a lot more than the value of their shares as these have dropped significantly in recent years.