In Brief
Intralot, Turkcell set up gaming subsidiary Gaming systems operator Intralot, an affiliate of telecom equipment manufacturer Intracom, announced yesterday it had set up a subsidiary in Turkey in collaboration with Turkcell. The subsidiary, Libero SA, will offer sports betting services via alternative networks – mobile phones, digital TV, call centers and the Internet. «Libero will start operations by the end of 2003. In the first phase it will start offering services via mobile phones (WAP over GPRS) and the Internet (web portal),» Intralot said. Libero will use mobile operator Turkcell’s network. In August last year, Intralot and Turkcell’s subsidiary Inteltek were awarded a project to upgrade Turkey’s soccer betting system Sportoto in an international tender. Intralot, with a current market value of 540 million euros, is also active in Chile, where it signed a six-year contract to supply the country with an Internet and telephone platform for its pools, lottery and betting games. (Reuters) Ice-cream maker expands abroad, eyes double-digit growth Delta Ice Cream, a subsidiary of dairy group Delta Holdings, expects double-digit growth in group sales and core earnings this year, management said yesterday. «Group sales and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will increase by 10 percent and 14 percent respectively this year,» Chief Executive Dionysis Nikolaou told reporters. Delta Ice Cream, with operations in Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria, launched its premium Nirvana-brand ice cream in the UK and Belgium this year as part of its expansion into Western Europe. Nikolaou said the company is also targeting other countries. He said that expanding Balkan economies, where Delta dominates with a market share of 50 percent, mean subsidiaries there have strong growth prospects. The company has invested about 100 million euros in the region. Delta Ice Cream’s units abroad are expected to account for 40 percent of group profit before interest and taxes this year, management said. (Reuters) Price set Greece’s leading cigarette maker Papastratos and Philip Morris International, a unit of Altria Group, have agreed on the pricing for the sale of a 76 percent stake in Papastratos to Philip Morris, they said late on Monday. «The purchase price to be paid by the purchaser to the vendors will be 18.02 euros or 17.97 per share, depending upon a final agreement on the valuation of certain real estate owned by the company,» Papastratos said in a statement. In May, when the agreement was first announced, Philip Morris had said that the deal, valued at up to 371 million euros, would be conducted through one of its affiliates at a maximum of 18.15 euros per Papastratos share. Papastratos had added the final price could be up to 1 percent lower. (Reuters)
