The Greek government finished the sale of the 33% stake it held in Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics SA (OPAP SA) to Emma Delta. OPAP is a state-controlled gambling operator that conducts numerical lottery and sports betting games. The deal was worth EUR 652 million or USD 870.52 million. Greek sold its assets to comply with an international bailout agreement.The European Union/International Monetary Fund would continue to give funding to cash-strapped Athens under its EUR 240 billion plan for as long it complied with its terms. One of those terms was for Athens to privatize its state assets.
Emma Delta is a fund controlled by Jiri Smejc, a Czech investor. He had earlier told Reuters in July that he would proceed with the acquisition but would review the terms later on to see if it would not be detrimental for his firm. The fund is comprised of Greece's Melissanidis Group, Czech private equity company PPF Group NV and Italy's Lottomatica Group SpA.
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