GVC Holdings - Budget not as bad as feared

The Budget has provided long-awaited clarity on a number of gaming-related issues. The implementation of the £2 FOBT stake reduction will begin in October 2019, at the same time as a 600bp increase in remote gaming duty (RGD), from 15% to 21%. This is 1% higher than market expectations, but lower than recent rumours of 25%. We now include a £30m annual EBITDA impact in our forecasts. Also adjusting for an earlier implementation of the FOBT stake limit, we have lowered our FY19e EBITDA by 7%. Our FY20e EBITDA declines by 4%. The stock has fallen c 22% since August and trades at 9.8x EV/EBITDA and 13.0x P/E for FY19e.