Rank Rises on Report of Takeover Approach by Genting

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Rank Group Plc, the second-largest U.K. casino company, rose in London trading after a report that it was approached by investor Genting Bhd. about a cash takeover bid worth around 485 million pounds ($959 million).

Rank added 9.5 pence, or 11 percent, to 97.75 pence, the day's peak, at 2:04 p.m. local time. The percentage advance was the biggest since Nov. 29. Genting, Asia's largest publicly traded casino company, proposed paying 124 pence for each of Maidenhead, England-based Rank's shares, the Daily Mail reported.

The British gaming company has become a takeover target after its shares slid by three-fifths last year because of an indoor- smoking ban and gambling-law changes that hurt sales. Genting, which became the U.K. casino-market leader on buying Stanley Leisure Plc in 2006, has built a stake of about 11 percent in Rank, which also owns bingo clubs and a betting Web site.

Spokesmen Andrew Dowler of Rank and Justin Leong at Kuala Lumpur-based Genting declined to comment.

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