Greece's OPAP confident on Turkish lottery tender - paper

Greek betting monopoly OPAP has signed an agreement with Turkey's Alarko Holding, Dogus and Fina to jointly participate in the tender for the sale of the Turkish lottery.

Turkey earlier this month extended the deadline for binding bids in the tender by about two months to April 15, at the request of potential investors.

"We are ready for the final phase and I believe it will not be difficult for us to get there," OPAP's CEO Christos Hadjiemmanuil said in an interview published on Isotimia newspaper.

Turkey is selling the lottery and granting the new owners a 10-year license to operate the firm and receive 17 percent of its revenues.

But Hadjiemmanuil said the acquisition of the Turkish lottery was not an end in itself and that the Greek firm was also looking into other investing opportunities.

He said OPAP's strong profits and cash were a shield to the world financial crisis but did not rule out a slight drop in the firm's revenues, if punters' disposable income fell.

"In any case we are not passive. We are continuously improving our activities to achieve the ideal combination of low cost and high effectiveness," he said.