Two of the contracts considered as unprofitable, concluded by the Romanian Lottery with the Intracom-Intralot-Lotrom group of Greek companies are generating extreme interest, because their expiration is getting near. The question arises whether the authorities will once again hand over the Lottery to the Greeks, by extending the contracts, or whether the new contracts will be concluded with other companies.
The authorities, starting with the former management of the Romanian Lottery and the Prime Minister Victor Ponta, have promised that the state would no longer cooperate with the Greek government.
Sources close to the situation claim that that may not be the case.
One of the contracts expiring at the end of this year, which was concluded in 2003, concerns video-lottery-terminal type devices (VLT).
Over the last few months, there have been allegations that Novomatic is being favored in the process for the designation of a new company by concluding a new contract for VLTs, a process which is close to completion.
Novomatic owns about 5% of Intralot, one of the Greek companies that has concluded contracts with the Romanian Lottery which were unprofitable for the latter.
Our sources claim, however, that it is not the parent company, Novomatic Austria, that gets involved in this procedure, but rather, a company called Novotalica and which has as its shareholders the Novomatic Group and a company led by Benny Steinmetz (a shareholder in the Roşia Montană project), Tal Silberstein (former advisor of Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, during his time as a prime minister, and consultant of president Traian Băsescu, and who has also been close to several politicians over the years, according to the press) and businessman Remus Truică.
According to the quoted sources, Novotalica is registered in Cyprus.
Sorin Constantinescu, the advisor
