The largest domestic company Sazka Group from the KKCG group, financier Karel Komrek, is preparing for a large foreign acquisition. And this is the main motive for one of the largest investments in the gambling business in our cooperation with American private equity funds, or more precisely the global company Apollo Global Management.
Globln funds Apollo invests 500 million euros in Sazka Entertainment |
Sazka announced his significant business at a time when the Chamber of Deputies was preparing for further tax gambling, even if he did not get high in the case of the lottery.
As part of the first announced cooperation with Sazka, Apollo will invest EUR 500 million (approximately CZK 13.3 billion) in the newly established Sazka Entertainment company. After this transaction, its own capital will amount to 4.2 billion euros (some 111 billion crowns) and, if approved by the antitrust council, will become the 100% owner of the Sazka Group, according to the full text in the next five years.
The KKCG plus Apollo tandem will thus enter the gaming business in the Czech Republic, as well as in Greece, Italy and Austria. With ambition to give expansion.
Together with a strong American investor, Sazka Group has opened up space for investments in both Europe and the USA, and possibly in other regions as well. I am convinced that the gaming industry is one of the most promising industries in the future, commented Karel Komrek, founder of KKCG and chairman of the board of Sazky Group.
A boost for the Sazka business
Apollo, founded 30 years ago and funded by a group of pension companies, banks and other private investors, manages around $ 433 billion in capital in companies around the world.
Buy ownership by companies (so-called private equity is an alternative form of financing compared to the company’s entry on the stock exchange) and dream of developing them. In particular, Apollo has a solid reputation among analysts and investors. It is a completely prestigious private equity company with years of experience, describes the conditions in Sazka investor Jan Pravda, the founder of the investment fund Sanning and Pravda Capital, and the former corporate finance company Patria Finance.
Sazka Group does not suffer. Together with shares in lottery companies abroad, it spent 311 million euros a year last year (approximately 8.3 billion crowns). But in the home market itself, Sazce and its dominant lottery, Sportka zko, are listed.
Sazka boasts that last year it generated a total of 176 new million and one billion. And in total, she paid out 50 million wins in the amount of 9.1 billion crowns in all games. Losk’s profit in the Czech Republic at 1.6 billion crowns was a record and was helped by the people, who spent a total of 17.7 billion crowns at Sazka. Of this, the company paid out a change of games and paid 1.7 billion to the state on the gambling tax.
Crisis year. A me bt h
Jene is coming this year. Since January, the lottery tax has risen from 23 to 35 percent (sweating from the gaming left to selected gaming players after winning games), which, according to Sazka’s spokesman Václav Friedmann, cut profits by hundreds of millions of crowns. And so he did something, which in turn caused the lottery company to move as many activities to the Internet as possible due to closed operations.
However, the biggest risk is the latest initiative of the deputies. The House will discuss the tax package, so its bills are those that propose proposals for gambling tax. Prime Minister Andrej Babi (YES) and Vclav Votava (SSD) propose to welcome all types of gambling, with the exception of technical games (slot machines) and lotteries (including Sportka), which today have a maximum rate of 35 percent.
But then there is the proposal of the People’s Party Pavel Blobrdek, who wants to increase the amount of 23 percent, ie by two percentage points, to give a lot (roulette, poker, etc.), but the lottery sharply from 35 to 55 percent. This is due to the fact that the rate in this category in the countries of the European Union, including the profitability of lotteries for their operators compared to all other types of gambling and mainly the amount of 1.3 billion crowns, which will bring its proposal to the central budget.
Sazka rejected his arguments and argued that the stt would, on the contrary, fall by 1.1 billion, because its total sttu contributions would fall by an aunt. Such a tax would mean the liquidation of Sazka, as we all know it, said Robert Chvtal, CEO of Sazka. According to him, Blobrdek’s version would seem to lead to Sazka being forced to stop offering losing tickets and would reduce the main game of Sportka.
The deputies will get to the discussion of the tax package in the next few days. Then the whole package of changes, including, among other things, the proposal for the abolition of the super-gross wage, discuss the Sent.
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