TURKS LOTTERY PRIVATISATION DATE NOW JAN. 9

10 October 2008

Strong competition from bidders prompts extension

The Turkish government has re-set the date for the privatisation of the national lottery Milli Piyango (see previous InfoPowa reports) to January 9 2009 following strong bidding from interested international parties, ReporterNet informs.

Companies interested in the tender include Lottomatica unit GTech, Greek companies Opap and Intralot , Turkey's Koc Group , Austrian Lotteries, U.S. firm Scientific Games and Britain's Camelot.

The privatisation will involve a re-branding exercise, and the appointment of a regulatory authority for the Turkish lottery business.

ReporterNet asserts that the sell-off is part of a wide privatisation programme which the country is implementing in order to generate much-needed foreign revenues to help ease a bloated current account deficit.

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