Russia-linked firm could gain stake in company behind UK’s national lottery
A Czech investment firm with significant interests in Russia could end up owning a 5% stake in the company behind the UK’s national lottery, it has emerged.
PPF is poised to acquire shares in Allwyn Entertainment AG via the listing of an investment vehicle in New York in September. Allwyn’s UK subsidiary won the licence to operate the lottery from Camelot this year.
PPF sold its Russian banking assets in May but still has a raft of investments in the country, from insurance to heavy industry and property.
The merger of Allwyn – formerly known as Sazka – with a stock market investment vehicle, the Cohn Robbins special purpose acquisition company, will be voted on by Cohn Robbins shareholders on 7 September.
Gary Cohn, a former chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs and a White House adviser to Donald Trump, would sit on the listed company’s board, the firm said this week.
PPF will end up owning a maximum of 4.99% of the shares in the new company under the $260m “backstop” commitment to support the listing. The float is expected to make Allwyn’s owner, the billionaire Karel Komárek, about $750m.
The Czech tycoon Petr Kellner founded PPF and was the country’s richest man before his death in a helicopter crash during a skiing holiday in Alaska last year.
PPF Real Estate offered leases on commercial properties in Russia last year including the Metropolis office buildings and a joint project to develop South Gate industrial park, both in Moscow. PPF also runs a life insurance business in Russia and holds a near 4% stake in the London-listed miner Polymetal International, worth about £30m.
The deal with PPF is the latest link between Allwyn and Russia. Komárek’s holding company, KKCG Group, runs Moravské Naftové Doly, which has a gas
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