TURKEY TO PRIVATISE STATE LOTTERY

25 July 2008

August the target date


Turkish media are reporting that good progress has been made on the privatisation of the country's state-owned National Lottery (Milli Piyango) which is expected to begin next (August) month.

The process will officially start after enactment of a bill on financial control by the legislature, and it is anticipated that a ten year license will initially be granted to the successful applicant operator. Koc Group, Dogan Group, Cukurava Group and Is Yatirim are among the Turkish companies said to have expressed interest, along with foreign organisations such as OPAP (Greece), GTech- Lottomatica (Italy-USA), Essnet-Tattersall (Sweden), Scientific Games (USA), Camelot (UK), Intralot (Greece), Austrian Lotteries (Austria) and Sisal (Italy).

The plan is for 17 percent of revenues to be awarded to the tender-winning firm while 3 percent will go to the Authority of the National Lottery.

The Turkish National Lottery has a 32 percent market share in Turkey with an annual turnover of US$ 683 million and US$ 189 million in net profit.

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