EUROPEAN GAMING GROUP NOW A FULL TATTERSALLS SUBSIDIARY

Australian partnership to buy European betting companies winds down

Australian gambling group Tattersalls has announced that it has completed its acquisition of Macquarie Bank's 50 percent stake in the European Gaming Group, giving the company full ownership.

In late November last year, after some tense dickering between a Tattersalls-Macquarie partnership and the major British gambling company Talarius plc, the Australians purchased the UK company in a GBP 142 million ($A345 million) deal

The Victorian-based lotteries and poker machines operator and Australia's largest investment bank formed a joint venture, called European Gaming Group to handle the acquisition, with Tattersalls subsequently buying out the investment bank's share.