OPAP: The Czechs have acquired Melissanidis’s stake

Allwyn has acquired the stake of Yeonama Holdings, owned by the D. Melissanidis family, in OPAP, for a price of EUR 327.4 million.

Allwyn, owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, has agreed to acquire a minority stake in SAZKA Delta AIF Variable Investment Company, through which Allwyn controls a stake in OPAP.

As a result of this agreement, Allwyn’s stake in OPAP is now 48.1%.

Thus, the ‘economic interest’ of Allwyn, ie the percentage corresponding to the share in dividend distribution and not in voting rights, in OPAP will increase from about 41.2% to about 48.1%, including 14.15% directly controlled by SAZKA Group.

For his part, Allwyn CEO Robert Chvatal said that the acquisition completes a series of transactions through which the shares of other shareholders in SAZKA Delta have been acquired over the past three years.

Market circles estimate that the development is not unrelated to the legal procedures that Mr. Dimitris Melissanidis, his son George Melissanidis and their companies are facing in connection with Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, before the courts of New York and Luxembourg, as they face lawsuits with the plaintiffs claiming that they have been involved in misappropriation and fraudulent activities amounting to up to $ 300 million.

Yeonama Holdings, whose stake in OPAP was acquired by Allwyn, is a company owned by Grady Properties Corporation S.A, a company against which the plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit in Luxembourg, claiming that it benefited from the fraud in the Aegean Marine Petroleum Network. Stock exchange circles estimate that there is a possibility that the Czech investors in OPAP no longer considered it desirable to work with companies and investors facing such lawsuits. This is not unrelated to the fact that Allwyn has announced its plans to publicly list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), working in partnership with special purpose acquisition company Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp. (CRHC).