SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Despite a new government in charge of Brazil, the planned sale of state-owned instant win (scratch) operator LOTEX continues to blunder on.
Closing April, BNDES – Brazil’s national development bank, the organisation charged with selling the state asset – issued its fifth straight postponement of the LOTEX tender. It has now extended its window for bid proposals until 9 May.
BNDES extension has been granted to allow interested parties to have ‘more time’ to provide ‘clarified submissions of proposals, and documents required to participate in the tender process’.
At present, little is known with regards to which international firms will participate in the auction of LOTEX. Despite reported interest from IGT, Intralot and Scientific Games, BNDES chaotic handling of the tender has seen no international operator state its commitment to acquiring LOTEX.
In its latest media update, BNDES governance states that it will disclose the names of investors that will be able to participate in its competition.
This April, CAIXA Federal – the current operating firm and sole distributor of LOTEX products – underlined the importance of selling the asset in 2019.
At present, CAIXA seeks to raise BRL $100 billion (€22 billion) through a capital markets placement, as the state-owned lottery operator has been pressured to pay back its BRL $40 billion debt (€9 billion) owed to the Federal Government.
