Intralot

By Vangelis Mandravelis

Intralot confirmed previous reports on Thursday by appearing as the sole bidder in a tender for the license to operate Greek horse-race betting held by state privatization fund TAIPED.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

A very quiet day at the Greek bourse saw little action for most stocks at the start of the week, while trading volume did not even make it past the 70-million-euro mark.

Friday’s June triple witching and a sudden interest expressed by foreign buyers in the week’s very last hour of trading took the Greek bourse’s benchmark above 1,300 points and its weekly gains close to 3 percent.

The benchmark of the Greek bourse hit a two-month high on Friday following another session of gains with particularly high trading volume.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,305.16 points, adding 1.49 percent to Thursday’s 1,285.97 points. On a weekly basis it climbed 6.68 percent. The blue chip FTSE/ATHEX 25 expanded 1.83 percent to 422.39 points.

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday assigned Intralot’s recently issued 250-million-euro seven-year bond a final BB-/RR3 rating.

Athens-listed Intralot generates only 5 percent of its revenues and less than 10 percent of its EBITDA in Greece.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

The privatization of horse-racing organization ODIE has hit a lease rate hurdle for the course at Markopoulo in eastern Attica.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

OPAP subsidiary Ellinika Lachia SA announced on Wednesday the instant lottery’s return to the Greek market under the name “Scratch.”

The new scratch cards, which were launched at the start of May, appear to constitute a priority for OPAP’s Czech management and the flagship of Ellinika Lachia regarding sales strategy.

By Abigail Moses

A recovery in the nation that set off the euro region’s debt crisis is allowing Greece’s largest electricity company to return to the bond market for the first time since 2000.

Fitch Ratings on Friday affirmed Intralot’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at B+, but revised the outlook to Negative from Stable.

[Reuters]