Nesis and his partners will play Greek lottery

Greece has sold one third of the gambling company Opap to group of investors, including the companies of the Russian businessman and well-known in Russia Czech businessman Jiri Šmejc, for over 650 million EUR. "This is our and Šmejc deal. The rest do the legwork", source close to the ICT group informs.

Investment fund Emma Delta, representing a consortium of Eastern European investors completed the purchase of 33% stake in the Greek gambling company Opap for 650 million EUR, Financial Times (FT) reported. In fact, they bought a controlling stake, because 56.4% of the shares are in free float.

The seller is Greek government. The financial crisis has forced the authorities to privatize. For now sale of one third of Opap is the largest privatization deal in the history of the country. The buyers pay 630 million euro immediately, the other 20 million – within the space of 10 years.

On Monday, Greek businessman Dimitris Melissanidis (from Emma Delta) and the head of the Greek privatization agency Taiped Stelios Stavridis signed the agreement on the deal in Athens. According to Stelios Stavridis, the privatization of Opap shows the desire of the Greek Government to make such deals in order to "bring the country back to growth and prosperity."

 According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, a consortium of buyers includes the companies of the main owner of the ICT Group Alexander Nesis. He and Melissanidis will pay 145 million and 157 million euros respectively for Opap, Jiri Šmejc fund MEF Holdings (former partner of Czech billionaire Peter Kellner) and companies of Slovak businessman Pavel Komarek will both pay 145 million EUR, companies of the Slovak investment group J&T - 31 million EUR, the Greek Copelouzos Group - 26 million EUR. This was confirmed by manager close to one of the investors.

The representative of ICT also confirmed the deal and its amount. Greek economy has growth potential and the group is optimistic about investments in undervalued assets in this country, he said. He also reminded that ICT and Šmejc have a stake in Greek Piraues Bank. "This is our and Šmejc deal. The rest do the legwork. Including the Greek co-investors ", source close to the ICT group said.

Opap was established in 1958 as a public company; in 1999 it was transformed into a joint stock company. Opap is engaged in gambling and bookmaking industry in Greece and Cyprus, the company has 4843 sales offices in Greece. Its revenue in 2012 amounted to almost 4 billion EUR, net profit - 505.5 million EUR. Capitalization is 2.4 billion EUR, after the deal was announced Opap shares on the Athens Stock Exchange on Monday have gone up by 4% and yesterday - by 0.1%. But before the crisis Opap cost was three times as much - at the end of May 2008 it was 8 billion EUR.

In fact Opap is a monopoly, FT says. In January, the EU Court acknowledged that Opap monopoly is illegal. The Court considered the complaint of British gaming and betting companies StanleyBet International, William Hill and Sportingbet, whose bids for licenses in Greece have been rejected. The Court called on Greece to reform the sector and open the market to competition.