IT COULD BE YOU: LOTTO FOR SALE
CITY advisers have been appointed to find buyers for a majority stake in Camelot, the group that runs the National Lottery.
At least four out of Camelot’s five shareholders, representing an 80 per cent stake in the group, are interested in selling their stakes which are valued at a total of more than £300m.
The shareholders, headed by Cadbury, Thales and the Royal Mail, have instructed Greenhill and Rothschild to handle the auction.
It is not known which of De La Rue and Fujitsu Services want to sell.
One source close to the situation said at least four of the group’s shareholders did not see their stakes as core holdings.
“Any sale by them would be beneficial for the company because currently they aren’t really active. You can envisage a position where the management would welcome it.”
The source cautioned that a sale might not definitely go ahead. “If they don’t achieve the right price, a sale won’t happen,” he told Morning Wire
Sky News reported that the four shareholders – who all have a 20 per cent stake – are looking to fetch around £80m each.
A change of ownership, especially if it were to be a private equity group, would not necessarily lead to a change of management at the group, which is headed by Dianne Thompson.
Any new owner would have to be approved by the National Lottery Commission and essentially that would involve the new owner passing the equivalent of a fit and proper person test.
Camelot, which won the right to run the competition for another 10 years in 2007, has raised around £22bn for good causes so far.
The operator keeps less than 0.5p of each £1 earnt, according to advisers. In May, Camelot unveiled its best sales performance in a decade, after successfully completing the largest lottery upgrade of its kind in the world.
There will inevitably be speculation that billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson may bid.