As reported by: The Guardian
A consortium led by gambling tycoon Sol Kerzner has trumped a rival bid for Wembley, the greyhound races company, setting the scene for a colourful bid battle.

Mr Kerzner has joined a property developer and US leisure firm Waterford to form BLB Investors and launch a bid for Wembley. The group's 800p-a-share offer, announced yesterday, values Wembley at £287m. The earlier bidder, MGM Mirage, offered£270m, including the possibility of a £4m bonus for shareholders if Wembley was successful in beating a US court case that alleges its executives committed bribery.

MGM said it was considering increasing its offer but immediately fell foul of the City's Takeover Panel. The body said MGM had made a "clear breach" of the rule that a firm must not say it will increase an offer without stating how much it is worth. It also faces a major hurdle as its scheme for a takeover requires 75% of shareholders to vote, but the BLB consortium owns 22.5%.

The new bidder is half owned by Starwood Capital, a US property investment company, which owns an office and retail block in the centre of Leeds. A quarter is owned by Waterford, a US leisure company that has worked with Mr Kerzner on a casino project with the Mohegan Native American tribe in the US.

The rest of the consortium is owned by Kerzner, the Bahamas leisure company chaired by Mr Kerzner, who made his fortune in apartheid South Africa.

The news came as Mr Kerzner was granted a licence to operate a casino in the UK by the Gaming Board, despite claims that he could be shunned due to old allegations that he was involved in bribery while running his business empire in South Africa.

This history might affect the bid for Wembley, as it is reliant on the approval of regulators in Rhode Island, where Wembley's primary business is and where its executives are facing the bribery case.

The Kerzner allegations have, however, been investigated by officials in New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as the UK, and in each case the group was cleared to operate in the jurisdiction concerned.

"Our consortium has invested in buying a 23% block of Wembley," said Butch Kerzner, Sol's son and the chief executive of Kerzner International.

"I would never want to anticipate things but we are confident that just as five other investigations have concluded that we are fit and proper for a licence, it will be the same for Rhode Island."