After rejecting an earlier offer, Greece’s state privatization fund (TAIPED) has reportedly accepted a better bid from consortium led by the state’s OPAP gambling operation for a license to operate all state lotteries for the next 12 years, although one of the bidders, the Italian lottery agency Lottomatica has dropped out.
SKAI radio reported that TAIPED has accepted the only offer made for the lotteries, one of the prime commodities in Greece’s lagging privatization process. The rejected offer was to pay Greece a deposit of 125 million euros ($163 million) with another 30 million euros ($39.12 million) to be paid in the first year and a minimum of 50 million euros ($65.2 million) for each of the next 11 years.
TAIPED asked for 190 million euros ($247.76 million) up-front to show Greece is making progress in raising revenues from privatization but that was too rich for Lottomatica, which opted out of the consortium.
The State-managed OPAP gaming company, that had a 34 percent stake in the consortium has raised its stake to 67 percent to fill the gap, and proposed a higher offer that wasn’t revealed. The minor stakeholders Intralot (16.5 percent) and Scientific Games (16.5 percent), are said to have given their consent to the increase of the deposit offered to TAIPED, as their contribution is not changed. The news, however, made OPAP’s share prices fall, although Intralot gained.
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