Greece Poised to Sell Lottery Business by End-June

Greece plans to sell its state lotteries by the end of June, which will enable it to privatize betting monopoly OPAP, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting a privatization agency official.

Greece agreed last month to sell a 33% stake in OPAP to Greek-Czech fund Emma Delta for 712 million euro ($953.54 million).

But the OPAP sale has been threatened by delays in Greece selling its 12-year state lottery licence to an OPAP-led consortium.

"We are aiming to conclude the (state lottery) deal by the end of the month," the executive director of privatisation agency TAIPED, Andreas Taprantzis, told Reuters. "This is related to OPAP's privatisation, which has to be concluded, so we have to get it done."