Holdup in Camelot Lottery Sale
06/01/2010 00:47:25
A holdup in the Camelot Lottery sale has further jeopardised the sale of the UK National Lottery company into the New Year. Earliest last year in the depths of the UK economic crises, the main Camelot shareholders all decided to see their shares in the UK National Lottery, with all parties selling it means that the whole of Camelot, who run the UK National Lottery and the UK arm of the Euromillions Lottery is up for sale.
Cadbury, Fujitsu, De la Rue, Royal Mail and Tales are all keen to sell their shares in Camelot after a decision last year to cut investments in projects that ‘were not directly related to their business’ and since then, the sale of the lottery company who run both the UK National Lottery and Euromillions Lottery has been limping along.
It’s certainly not lack of interest that is holding up the sale. Big names like Virgin and the French Lottery operator Francaise des Jeux have shown interest in the lottery but right now the deadline for bids has been put back.
It looks as though a Canadian Company has asked for more time to get their bids finalised before the deadline and this extension has been granted.
However, already there is more drama after doubts about Camelot’s license to exclusively run the UK lottery continuing into the future. Camelot currently holds the license for the next ten years and has the option to extend for five years after that. Several lottery companies in the UK would seriously impair the value of Camelot as a company and we at World Lottery thing that bidders are right to show caution.
No doubt this saga will rumble on for a few months yet but with the launch of the global lottery imminent this really does need to be resolved before any major decisions about a global lottery draw can be made.
Written by Lucy Lotto
Page Last Updated: 02/02/2010 09:41:47
