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Czech investment firm and gaming operator SAZKA has made a €2.06bn tender bid to acquire all shares in OPAP, the largest lottery and sports betting operator in Greece.
The offer is priced at €9.12 per share, with Sazka seeking to acquire 67% of the shares in OPAP. Sazka already indirectly holds a 33% stake in OPAP via Emma Delta, a business that it is the majority shareholder in with 66.7% of shares.
“We are confident that thanks to our ongoing support and active engagement in the business we have helped to deliver significant value to all the shareholders of OPAP,” said Sazka chairman Karel Komárek.
On Monday, the Athens Securities Exchange temporarily suspended OPAP’s listing, announcing that the gambling group anticipated a “major imminent corporate event”.
The deal is subject to approval from the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) and neither Sazka nor OPAP have stated when it could go through.
The Czech conglomerate Sazka, which operates one of European gambling’s biggest investment portfolios, secured its original holding in OPAP during 2013, as the Greek government was forced to privatise a number of state-owned enterprises, required under the terms of Greece’s IMF bailout.
