Deadlock with lotteries and OPAP remains
The deadlock threatening the privatization of the OPAP gaming company remained after Wednesday’s meeting between the management of TAIPED and the heads of the Emma Delta bidding consortium.
The managers of the state privatization fund and the president and members of the Greek-Czech consortium ended their meeting having reached no agreement on the contract OPAP intends to sign for the license to operate Greece’s state lotteries for the next 12 years.
The process both for the lotteries and for the sale of 33 percent of OPAP to Emma Delta has frozen and Wednesday’s tense meeting heard the consortium threaten to abandon OPAP unless the contract for the lotteries is amended. Emma Delta objects to the favorable terms for two of OPAP’s partners in bidding for the lotteries’ license, namely Intralot and Scientific Games.
TAIPED issued an ultimatum to the OPAP-led group of companies that has won the tender for the lotteries’ license, saying that it has to sign the contract by July 4, reminding the group that the bidders’ letter of guarantee expires on July 31.
