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Austria – Sazka announces intention to take sole control of Casinos Austria

By - 15 August 2017

The largest shareholder of Casinos Austria, the Czech Sazka Group, ‘intends to acquire the sole control of Casinos Austria’ according to a statement published by the Federal Competition Authority (BWB).

Sazka Group, which runs the Czech national lottery, is owned by Czech businessmen Karel Komarek and Jiri Smejc. It said it had bought more shares in Casinos Austria to take its shareholding from 11.3 per cent to about 34 per cent.

The second largest shareholder is the state owned ÖBIB with 33.2 per cent followed by Novomatic with 17.2 per cent. Novomatic had tried to take control of the company last year but failed in the courts. It is not believed to be interested in selling its shares.

Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries Group have just reported the best financial year in their 50-year corporate history with an eight per cent rise in group revenues to a record €3,885.95m. Sustained investments in improving and extending its portfolio as well as measures to improve efficiency also led to the group achieving clear increases in results: operating results rose by 49 per cent to €150.1m, while group consolidated results were up by 65 per cent to €91.2m.

There was also cause for celebration among customers and guests, who together took home total winnings of €2.7bn, a rise of 11.3 per cent compared to 2015 and yet another historic high.
Visitor numbers at Casinos Austria’s 12 domestic casinos were up by 10.6 per cent in 2016 compared to the previous year: together, these casinos welcomed a total of 3,009,946 guests, more than half of whom were international visitors. This led in turn to a strong rise in gaming revenues, which were up 5.2 per cent year-on-year to €326.83m.

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