Net Sans-Hitay places highest bid of $2.76 bln for Turkish lottery licence

Turkish consortium Net Sans-Hitay placed the highest bid of $2.755 billion in a tender for a 10-year license to operate Turkey's national lottery on Tuesday, the privatization administration said.

The bid from Net Sans-Hitay must now be given final approval by Turkey's privatization and competition boards as well as by a high court, the privatization administration said.

It beat offers from two rival consortia: one composed of Czech investment groups KKCG and Emma Capital, and Italian gaming company GTECH SpA, the other Turkey's ERG-Ahlatci consortium.

Turkey attracted several billion dollars in privatization revenues last year, driven by sell-offs in the energy sector, and is now trying to focus on more profitable sales after revenues in some tenders came in below expectations.

In 2009, Turkey scrapped a tender to privatize the national lottery as a whole after the two bidders failed to meet the $1.6 billion minimum price, and later opted instead to sell licenses for games operated by the lottery.