The federal government will try again to sell Lotex, the instant lottery arm of the Caixa Econômica Federal, Alexandre Manoel, secretary of the Ministry of Economy's Planning, Lottery and Energy, told Reuters.
The new edict will be released later this month, probably on the 26th, with the event scheduled for October. According to Manoel, adjustments were made in the announcement to make the event more attractive to investors. "We think this time it will happen. We listened to the market, changed the rules and made this project even more attractive," he told Reuters.
The minimum grant amount for the business will be around US$% 150 million. To make the asset more interesting, the winner of the dispute may split the purchase eight times. The previous version of the announcement foresaw payment four times.
In addition, the minimum annual revenue required by groups to participate in the competition was reduced from US$ 300 to about US$ 150 million.
"We have structured to have concurrence and competition, and we are interested in the best coming because the government will also win," he said.
According to the secretary, the new announcement foresees that the government will be entitled to receive 16.7% of the revenues of the operator Lotex, not including income tax and other taxes.
The perspective is that the concession strongly raises the points of sale. Today, there are 13,000 points of sale and the projection is that in the coming years this network will reach 65,000.
"The lottery market in Brazil is far from the world average and we expect an expansion of the market, with more revenues and many jobs," he concluded.
Initially scheduled to take place in June 2018, with a minimum bid of US$ 250 million, the Lotex auction was postponed several times and received adjustments to try to increase interest and address investor concerns.
Source: GMB / Reuters
