ADVFN Logo ADVFN

We could not find any results for:
Make sure your spelling is correct or try broadening your search.

Trending Now

Toplists

It looks like you aren't logged in.
Click the button below to log in and view your recent history.

Hot Features

Registration Strip Icon for monitor Customisable watchlists with full streaming quotes from leading exchanges, such as LSE, NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, Bovespa, BIT and more.

GRKZF Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics SA (PK)

17.75
0.00 (0.00%)
28 Jun 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type
Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics SA (PK) USOTC:GRKZF OTCMarkets Common Stock
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.00% 17.75 0.01 11,315.91 0.00 21:05:08

Greece Set to Privatize Gambling Monopoly

12/09/2012 6:50pm

Dow Jones News


Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) (USOTC:GRKZF)
Historical Stock Chart


From Jun 2019 to Jun 2024

Click Here for more Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) Charts.

ATHENS--Greece's privatization agency said Wednesday that it was ready to move ahead with the sale of gambling monopoly OPAP SA (OPAP.AT), marking another step toward jumpstarting the country's moribund privatization program.

In a statement, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund said a board meeting would be convened next Wednesday, Sept. 19, during which the board would takes steps to launch "the international tender process for the sale of 29% shares in OPAP."

The company is one of the crown jewels of Greece's privatization program. The move comes a day after the agency--following months of delay--announced similar steps to push forward with a flagship, multi-billion euro property tender and proceed with the sale of the country's natural gas monopoly.

At its meeting next week, the board is also expected to name the winning bidder in an estimated 200 million euro ($257.8 million) tender to operate Greece's national lotteries for 12 years--effectively completing the country's first privatization so far this year.

Greece's privatization program is a key part of a broader plan put together by its international creditors to pare its massive debt burden and attract investment into its recession-ravaged economy.

But the program has gotten off to a slow start. Originally tasked with selling up to EUR50 billion in assets by 2015, the privatization agency is now struggling to meet even its reduced target of EUR19 billion by that year.

Earlier this year, amid the political uncertainty surrounding Greece's back-to-back elections in May and June, the agency froze the privatization program altogether and its chairman resigned. As a result, the agency looks unlikely to meet even this year's goal of raising EUR3 billion from privatizations.

The share sale in OPAP, which has an overall market capitalization of around EUR2 billion, could help. But the privatization has also been held up by concerns from the European Commission's competition agency over Greece's differential tax and regulatory treatment of OPAP.

The company, which is both state-controlled and holds an exclusive gambling monopoly through 2020, enjoys a favorable tax rate on some of its gaming operations, something that has drawn complaints from privately owned betting companies.

But according to agency officials, those concerns have been overcome, with the commission withdrawing objections blocking the OPAP sale.

Write to Alkman Granitsas at alkman.granitsas@dowjones.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires


1 Year Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) Chart

1 Year Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) Chart

1 Month Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) Chart

1 Month Greek Organisation of Fo... (PK) Chart