Greek firm now owns 49.9 percent of the Caribbean’s largest lottery operator after boosting its investment last week.
Thursday 11th February 2010
Intralot, the Athens-based developer and supplier of gaming and transaction processing systems, has substantially increased its equity in the Caribbean’s largest lottery operator, Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL).
Through its Jamaican subsidiary, Intralot already held ten percent of SVL but recently purchased 1.3 billion shares at approximately two cents each to take its total stake in the lottery operator to 49.9 percent.
“We are very pleased to expand our partnership with SVL, a very successful and promising company in the gaming industry,” said Constantinos Antonopoulos, Chief Executive Officer for Intralot.
“This acquisition will create a win-win situation for Intralot as it will further strengthen our presence in the region and contribute to our group’s strategic objective for profitable growth and for SVL, which aims to become the protagonist of the gaming sector in the wider region.”
SVL began operations in 2001 before acquiring the full shareholdings of the Jamaica Lottery Company (JLC) in December of 2003 to gain a much larger foothold in the local gaming market. It recently reported revenues for the first eleven months of 2009 of approximately $250 million while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at around $14 million.
“We are very excited about becoming an indispensable part of the leading Jamaican lottery company,” said Nikos Nikolakopoulos, Managing Director for Intralot Latin America.
“This will open new horizons for SVL, enabling it to play a significant role in the region and penetrate further into the Caribbean gaming market.”
Public-listed SVL has an extended network of over 1,000 points of sale in Jamaica where it also runs a series of gaming lounges. It holds a license to operate fixed-odds betting on the Caribbean island nation and revealed that the Cash Pot numerical game is one of its most popular alongside Lotto, Pick 3, Lucky 5 and Dollaz.
“As a strategic investor, Intralot will provide SVL with expanded access to technology along with further penetration into new markets and endeavours and represents a vote of confidence in the management of SVL,” said Brian George, Chief Executive Officer for SVL.
