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Rank Group has acquired the casino at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry from Isle of Capri for £0.6m, and it will be converted into a G Casino at a cost of £1m. 27-Apr-2009 Rank is considering plans to sell off about ten of its 103 Mecca bingo clubs, in preparation for the introduction of the smoking ban in July. 07-May-2007 Rank has secured licensing approval to set up a £6m casino in Southend-on-Sea. 09-Apr-2007 Rank is to close nine bingo clubs in Hull, Liverpool, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Swansea, Reading and three in London, with the loss of 250 jobs, leaving it with a chain of 103 sites. 15-Feb-2007 Rank is to sell its Hard Rock business to Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment of the US for £490m, including 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four hotels and two casinos. 08-Dec-2006 Rank is to close its London head office with the loss of 40 jobs, in order to transfer its central functions to its gaming division in Maidenhead. 04-Sep-2006 Rank has sold the Clermont Club casino in London to BIL International of Singapore for £31m. 28-Aug-2006 Rank has announced that Deluxe Media Services has sold its Blackburn-based CD replication business to a subsidiary of Entertainment Distribution Company for £3m. 24-Jul-2006 Rank is considering plans to sell its Hard Rock cafe business for up to £500m, having appointed Merrill Lynch to conduct a strategic review. 05-Jul-2006 Rank is to sell its DVD replication and media distribution operations in West Sussex and Enfield to Sony for £5.9m. 03-Jul-2006 Rank has sold its Deluxe film processing business to MacAndrews & Forbes of the US for £433m, in order to focus on gambling and leisure. 29-Dec-2005 Rank is looking to demerge or sell off its Deluxe film and media services business for about £700m. 06-Sep-2004 Rank is in talks to acquire Sporting Options, the betting exchange valued at about £4m. 18-Aug-2004 Rank is planning to expand its casino operations by applying for five new regional licences, and will open its first Blue Square betting shop in London. 01-Mar-2004 Rank has submitted plans for the development of a £8m casino and bingo hall in Bolton. 09-Dec-2003 Rank has sold its games and slot machine businesses, which trade under the names of Leisure Machine Services and Seasonal Amusements and employ 800 staff, to Gamestec Leisure for £30m. 31-Oct-2003 Rank is looking to open five bingo and casino gaming complexes over the next five years at a cost of up to £30m, as part of its strategy to benefit from the changes to gambling legislation. 08-Sep-2003 Rank has acquired Disctronics, the CD replicator with factories in Blackburn, Crawley, France and Italy, for £34m, in order to expand its Deluxe film services business. 30-Jun-2003 Rank is linking up with Sol Melia to expand the Hard Rock hotel chain across Europe and Asia, with up to £600m of financing from Becker Ventures. 19-Jun-2003 Rank is said to be looking into the possibility of opening high street betting shops for its recently-acquired Blue Square business. 03-Mar-2003 Rank is to acquire Blue Square, the internet and telephone betting company, for £65m. 21-Jan-2003 Rank has secured a licence to set up a Hard Rock casino at the former Fashion Cafe in London's West End next year. 13-Dec-2001 Rank is hoping to apply for casino licences at up to 60% of its 123 bingo clubs, and has also announced plans to open six Hard Rock cafes in the UK by the end of next year. 10-Sep-2001 Rank is to relocate the Grosvenor Casino in Blackpool to the Sandcastle on the promenade this summer, at a cost of £3.5m. 22-May-2001 Rank is planning to sell its Deluxe video services division for about £400m by early next year, and is in negotiations with three financial bidders. 17-Nov-2000 Rank has sold its UK holiday business to Bourne Leisure Group for £700m, including Haven and Butlin's holiday camps, Warner country hotels and Oasis leisure parks. 28-Sep-2000 Rank is planning to set up a Hard Rock Casino at the £150m Printworks development in Manchester. 18-Sep-2000 Rank is to sell its chain of 85 Tom Cobleigh pubs to Electra Partners for £90m, in order to reduce debt. 04-Sep-2000 Rank is in discussions to sell its holiday business, which includes Warner, Oasis, Haven and Butlin's, to Bourne Leisure Group for up to £700m. 11-Jul-2000 Rank has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Universal Studios Escape, the Orlando theme park operation, to the Blackstone Group for £185m. 05-Jun-2000 Rank has bought the London Park Tower Casino from London Clubs International for an initial £14m, in order to expand its Grosvenor Casinos division. 18-Apr-2000 Rank is in negotiations with two potential bidders to sell its 50% stake in the Florida theme park Universal Studios Escape. 28-Feb-2000 Rank has sold Pinewood Studios to a consortium backed by 3i for £62m, which could be followed by the sale of its remaining film-related activities. 23-Feb-2000 Rank has acquired a digital disk duplication business from Pioneer North America for £11m, and will spend £6m expanding the facility. 23-Feb-2000 Rank is selling its chain of 75 Odeon cinemas to Cinven for £280m, and the business will be merged with Cinven's 57 ABC cinemas. 22-Feb-2000 Rank is looking to sell Pinewood Studios for about £50m, in order to focus on holidays and restaurants. 14-Feb-2000 Rank has announced plans to set up a £2.8m Grosvenor Casino at the Five Ways leisure development in Birmingham. 24-Jan-2000 Rank has selected Cinven as the preferred bidder for its Odeon Cinema chain, which is expected to be sold for up to £300m. 10-Jan-2000 Rank Group is to open a new call centre in Bognor Regis to handle reservations for its holiday division, with 200 new jobs being created and a further 200 being relocated from other offices. 16-Dec-1999 Northern Leisure is buying the nightclubs division of Rank Group for £150m, which will expand its chain to 125 nightclubs with a 5% market share. 20-Oct-1999 Rank is preparing to auction its chain of 75 Odeon Cinemas, which is expected to fetch about £300m. 02-Oct-1999 Rank is negotiating the sale of its 40 nightclubs and 10 themed bars to Northern Leisure, in a deal that could be worth up to £160m. 21-Aug-1999 Rank has taken its Tom Cobleigh pubs chain off the market, as it failed to attract a sufficiently high bid. 17-Aug-1999 Rank is to cut 465 administrative jobs and will consider selling some businesses, including its stake in the Universal joint venture with Seagram which could raise £300m. 05-Aug-1999 Rank is looking to sell its chain of 103 Tom Cobleigh pubs, which could result in a £120m sale to either a trade or financial buyer. 22-Jul-1999 Rank has announced that more than 500 jobs will be created at the £40m Sky Dome leisure complex in Coventry. 16-Jul-1999 Rank has sold five former Butlins Holiday Hotels to a new company called Grand Hotel Group for £20m. 02-Jul-1999 Rank is looking to sell its nightclub division in order to raise about £100m, and is also in talks to sell its amusement machines business. 28-Jun-1999 Rank is seeking 180 staff for a new call centre at Bognor, which will become the national headquarters for holiday reservations for all Rank holiday companies. 12-May-1999 Rank Group is looking to sell four holiday parks in the south of England, including the Harcourt Sands Holiday Village on the Isle of Wight which is on the market for about £2.7m. 10-May-1999 Rank Group has sold nightclubs in Stockton on Tees, Birmingham and Newport, Wales, to Midlands-based bar operator Springwood. 19-Feb-1999 Rank has dropped plans to sell its Oasis holiday village in the Lake District, having failed to attract a sufficiently high offer. 18-Jan-1999 Rank is looking to sell the Waterworld indoor family water park in Stoke for more than £1.5m, as well as its stake in the nearby Stoke Ski Centre. 20-Nov-1998 Carlton Communications is considering plans to bid for Rank's video duplication business. 05-Nov-1998 Rank is said to be in discussions with a number of companies about the sale of a package of 19 nightclubs. 04-Nov-1998 Rank Group is said to be vulnerable to a takeover having received a number of approaches about a possible £2bn break-up of the restaurants, cinemas, bingo clubs and holiday businesses. 02-Nov-1998 Rank Leisure is to close or sell the Odeon cinema in Coventry city centre to make way for a new multiplex being built as part of the £38m LeisureWorld and Arena 2000. 22-Oct-1998 Rank Group is looking to sell a number of businesses, including 53 nightclubs, the US holidays division, and possibly its Oasis holiday village, in order to focus on core activities such as Odeon cinemas, Mecca bingo, Haven holidays and film services. 05-Aug-1998 Rank Group is acquiring Parkdean Holidays, the provider of self-catering holidays, from Vardon for £38m and will convert the 10 sites to its Haven format. 26-Feb-1998 Rank Group is linking up with the National Basketball Association to invest £55m in the creation of a chain of 10 themed restaurants around the world, as part of a strategy to boost the Hard Rock brand. 03-Feb-1998 Rank Group is to invest £139m in its Butlin's holiday camps over the next two years, refurbishing accommodation at Skegness, Minehead and Bognor Regis, and converting Ayr and Pwllheli into Haven caravan parks. 04-Sep-1997 Rank is planning to revitalise its Butlins holidays following a fall in bookings which has been attributed to dissatisfaction with the accommodation on offer. 08-Aug-1997 Rank Group has sold its 20% stake in Rank Xerox to Xerox of the US, its partner in the office equipment joint venture, for £1bn. 07-Jun-1997 Rank Group, the bingo and casino operator, is cutting salary levels for its middle level club managers by £2,000, as part of plans to save £1m a year. 05-May-1997 Rank Group is planning a £1.5bn expansion of its leisure division over the next five years, including new bingo clubs, bars, nightclubs and Odeon cinemas. 04-Apr-1997 Carlton Communications has acquired Rank Film Distributors from the Rank Group for £65m. 03-Apr-1997 Rank is discussing the sale of Rank Film Distribution to a company thought to be Carlton Communications. 01-Mar-1997 Rank Group is to open a £100m Oasis Forest Holiday Village in Cumbria in May, creating up to 900 jobs. 17-Feb-1997 Rank is planning to sell Rank Film Distributors, which distributes classic British films, as part of a programme to raise £300m. 27-Jan-1997 Rank Organisation has acquired the Canadian outlets of Hard Rock Cafes for £36m. 27-Dec-1996 Rank Group has scrapped a £30m plan to convert the Trump Castle hotel and casino in Atlantic City into the Hard Rock theme. 29-Nov-1996 Rank Organisation is to sell its Shearings coach holiday business to a management buy-out, for a price expected to be around £80m. 05-Nov-1996 Rank Organisation is in discussions to convert Atlantic City's Trump Castle hotel and casino into a themed Hard Rock hotel and casino. 04-Oct-1996 Rank is acquiring the Tom Cobleigh pub group for £96m, and aims to integrate the brand into its other leisure outlets. 25-Sep-1996 Rank Organisation has sold its inland amusement centres to a former director of Rank Amusements, in order to focus expansion on its main leisure businesses such as Odeon cinemas, bingo and multi-leisure centres. 14-Sep-1996 Rank is looking to sell Shearings, its coach holiday operation that includes 30 UK hotels, for up to £80m. 13-Jul-1996 Rank Organisation is acquiring full control of the Hard Rock Cafes for $410m, thus gaining a further 13 outlets and 4 franchises. 08-Jun-1996 Rank Organisation is to build a £80m Oasis holiday village near Folkestone, creating 700 jobs. 03-Feb-1996 Rank is reorganising its bingo halls, opening 16 large ones next year but disposing of 15 more small ones. 07-Dec-1995 Rank has won planning permission to build an Oasis holiday village in the Lake District. 27-Sep-1995
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