Turkey to Privatise National Lottery by January

The Turkish Privatization Administration is planning to start the privatization process for the National Lottery over the coming months.

The process began back in 2003 when laws were changed to allow gaming licenses to be granted to state or private companies through a tendering process. The first tender took place in May 2009 but failed to produce any bids. Now there will be a second attempt after the Turkish Privatization Administration hired the consultancy services of PGlobal Advisory and Training Services.

The National Lottery Administration has revised the implementation regulation and now the tender is expected to be announced and bids collected over the next three months.

The most important change to the regulations is the duration of the license, before it was a maximum of ten years and now the duration will be set according to the Decision of the Council of Ministers. The license can be given either partially or wholly to a state economic organization and the granting of licenses will be handled by the Supreme Council of Privatization.

Bidding is likely to begin in the coming weeks and according to Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek the privatization process is due to be completed by January.