Turkey launches tender for the national lottery

ANKARA/ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey scrapped a former tender as a whole in 2009 after the bidders failed to meet the $1.6 billion of minimum price.

Turkey’s Privatization Authority yesterday launched a new tender for the privatization of the national lottery, Milli Piyango. The deadline for potential bidders was set for Feb. 13, 2014, according to the tender announcement in the Official Gazette.

Bidders can make their prequalification applications up until Jan. 30, 2014.

Within the framework of the existing regulations, the license, of which the right to plan and organize, and make draws in exchange for cash are currently done by the National Lottery Administration General Directorate (Administration) regarding the lottery, ‘hemen kazan’ and digital games as a whole will be privatized through granting the license.

$10 mln bid bond to participate in tender

Only legal persons and joint venture groups can partake in the tender. Real persons and investment funds can only be members of a joint venture group. In case investment funds occur to be a partner of a joint venture group, “funds under their management” as set out in statement of their independent auditors must be a minimum of $500 million and their shareholding in the joint venture group must be a maximum of 70 percent of the shares.

Bidders will be required a bid bond of $10 million in order to participate in the tender.
The preparations for the legal basis of Milli Piyango first began in 2003, allowing gaming licenses to be granted to state or private companies through a tendering process.

The relevant provisions were again amended in 2008 and an implementation regulation was published in the same year. The first tender took place in May 2009, but did not yield any results. Turkey scrapped a tender to privatize the lottery as a whole after the bidders failed to meet the $1.6 billion minimum price. Ankara subsequently opted instead to sell individual licenses for games operated by the lottery.

Turkey’s national lottery reached over 2.2 billion Turkish Liras of sales revenue from its online and retail products last year.