Greece is struggling to get its landmark privatisation of gaming and betting monopoly OPAP across the finish line after agreed buyer Emma Delta demanded OPAP’s business relationships with Intralot and Sci Games be redrawn.
Greece’s privatisation agency HRADF confirmed on 1 May it had accepted an offer of €652m for its 33% stake in the OPAP monopoly from Emma Delta, a consortium backed by Greek shipping magnate George Melisanidis and Czech businessman Jiri Smejc.
However, Emma Delta has now asked for a 12-year lottery contract between OPAP and an OPAP-led consortium including systems providers Intralot and Sci Games be renegotiated so they would pay lower fees. The consortium is understood to lack comfort with Intralot and Sci Games associated power of veto over OPAP’s decisions on the running of lotteries.
“If the lottery deal … is not signed, the privatization of OPAP will effectively blow up,” HRADF chairman Stelios Stavridis was reported to have told Real FM radio by Reuters.
Emma Delta and the Playtech-Gauselman consortium had already raised concerns over the renewal of an IT contract with Intralot back in March, ahead of the submission of formal bids, claiming that it would result in OPAP paying far more than it had previously stated, and that any potential buyer of Greece’s 33% stake in OPAP should have been consulted over a contract set to run for five years. OPAP shareholders however approved the extension, despite the EC expressing concerns.
Failure to get the OPAP deal across the finish line would provide a major blow to Greece’s much publicised privatisation drive aimed at securing the disbursement of further IMF bailout funds to prop up its ailing economy. HRADF also failed to find a buyer for natural gas company DEPA this month.
OPAP, the most profitable of the businesses being put up for sale by the Greek government, was seen as one of the crown jewels in the Greek state’s fire sale of approximately €2.6bn of assets this year.
HRADF and Emma Delta reportedly met on Wednesday to try and find a solution to the former’s concerns ahead of the scheduled signing of the disputed lottery contract on 4 July.
Emma Delta was the only binding bidder for OPAP, securing the stake for well below its €745m market value at the time. The EU Member State was set to make grand total of €712m from the sale, as it is also due to receive the 2012 dividend of €60m from its OPAP stake.
The European Commission last week delayed Greece’s adoption of amendments to its Gambling Law which would restrict online betting and most other online games to OPAP. The latter has an agreement with Spielo G2 to eventually provide it with online gambling products in Greece.
Article written by Peter Holmes
