Intralot, the world’s second-largest lottery system provider, said yesterday it has signed a 10-year deal to operate fixed-odds betting games in Jamaica, its fourth foray into Latin America in the last month. Jointly with Jamaica’s Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL), Intralot will launch two games in an initial network of about 500 outlets. The network is expected to reach 1,000 outlets, the statement said. Intralot is expected to receive a $140 million management fee over the contract period, while the Greek provider has committed to acquiring a stake of up to 10 percent in SVL. “Our new contract and acquisition of SVL shares paves the way to the Caribbean region,” Constantinos Antonopoulos, Intralot’s chief executive, said. Over the last month, Intralot agreed to be the new on-line operator of the state lottery of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and operate lottery games in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. (Reuters)

SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgarian consumer price inflation edged down to 11.0 percent year-on-year after easing to 11.2 percent in August, despite higher monthly inflation, statistics office data showed yesterday. Consumer prices rose 1.1 percent in September on a monthly basis, up from a 0.1 percent increase in August, the data showed. Food prices, which have been the main driver behind the Balkan country’s double-digit inflation in the past year, rose 1.1 percent on a monthly basis, as prices of meat and vegetables picked up. Non-food prices also rose 1.1 percent, mainly due to increases in the prices of clothes and shoes, while services were flat on the month. Annual inflation in September continued to ease due to a high base last year, the data showed.

Romania’s central bank has no reason to relax its monetary policy stance “too much” at present, Mugur Isarescu, the central bank governor, said yesterday. “Right now we do not have a reason to relax our monetary policy elements too much,” Isarescu told reporters. The central bank left its benchmark rate unchanged at 10.25 percent following its last monetary policy meeting, for the second time in a row, after a tightening cycle of 325 basis points which started last October. Isarescu said earlier that the bank had asked for currency exchange rate quotes from the market yesterday but did not seek to support the leu. Speaking later, he added that such practices could be repeated whenever “anomalies occur.” (Reuters)

Abraaj Capital Ltd, the Dubai-based private equity investor managing $5 billion in assets, has raised almost $3 billion for its fourth buyout fund. Abraaj completed the first closing of the fund, which was offered to its existing investors in the Middle East and North Africa, Mustafa Abdel-Wadood, Abraaj’s managing director told the Super Return private equity conference in Dubai yesterday. “This is a tremendous buying opportunity,” Abdel-Wadood told the conference, adding company valuations now were a quarter of the 15 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization seen a year ago. Closely held Abraaj in January paid $443.3 million to increase its stake in Turkish hospital operator Acibadem Saglik Hizmertleri & Ticaret AS to 54 percent. (Bloomberg)