The chairman of Greece’s privatisation agency TAIPED has been axed after accepting a private jet ride from a businessman that bought Greece’s 33% stake in betting and gaming monopoly OPAP last week.
Finance minister requested Yannis Stournaras requested Stelios Stavridis’ resignation on Sunday after Proto Thema reported that he had last week, following the completion of the Emma Delta consortium’s €652m buy of the OPAP stake last week, travelled to Kefalonia on a France-bound Lear jet belonging to Greek shipping and oil magnate Dimitris Melissanidis, one of the consortium’s two main backers.
The finance ministry however said that the OPAP deal would be unaffected by Stavridis dismissal for what it called “ethical reasons”, also rejecting suggestions the deal could be reversed.
Stavridis himself remained unrepentant for his actions, saying he had always acted with “transparency” and for practical reasons. “I don’t regret it at all, quite the opposite in fact,” he told Skai television today.
TAIPED chief executive Yannis Emiris told Reuters he wold remain in post and that the struggling privatisation programme, aimed at raising €2.6bn this year to secure the further disbursement of IMD bailout funds, would remain on track.
The most profitable of the Greek state assets put up for sale, the betting and gaming monopoly’s profits in the first quarter however tumbled 71% to €38.9m from €131.9m. This reflected the introduction of a 30% tax on all of its gross revenues, introduced to ward off potential State Aid claims after online operators began paying the 30% rate on Greek revenues under an interim licensing arrangement from 2011.
Uncertainty also surrounds Greek government plans to restrict online betting and most other games to OPAP until 2015. Lobby group the Remote Gambling Association has called on Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier to open infringement proceedings if Greece adopts the proposed amendments, which it argues are contrary to EU law.
The lobby group has also written to the Greek regulator asking it to stop reviewing the interim licences originally issued to 24 operators in 2011, arguing the real reason for the hearings was to prepare the 401-strong blacklist unveiled on 1 August. The RGA said the supporting regulations had not yet been amended to address points of non-compliance with EU law raised by Malta and the EC in their detailed opinions during the EC standstill period.
Betfair and William Hill, the first companies to exit Greece last November after new blacklisting and blocking measures were introduced despite not yet having gained EC approval, applied last month to run the Greek gambling monopoly set to be handed to OPAP. Their applications are aimed to expose the lack of a competitive and transparent tender process, as required under EU law.
Article written by Katy Stirland
