National Lottery has been sold to the Canadians

Once again yet another British institution has been sold to foreign investors. This time the UK National Lottery has been sold to the Canadians. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the largest occupational retirement scheme in Canada has agreed to pay £389 million to operate the UK National Lottery until 2019, providing that the sale is approved by National Lottery Commission.

The sale of the National Lottery has been headline news for some months now with many various investors, including Sir Richard Branson, keen to run the various National Lottery games and draws such as; Lotto, UK sales of the EuroMillions, Thunderball, Lotto HotPicks, Daily Play plus the many instant win games and scratchcards. However, over the last month or so the race to operate Britain’s lottery had be whittled down to just two runners. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan faced opposition from just one other party, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

National Lottery shareholders, De La Rue, Fujitsu, Royal Mail, Thales and Cadbury, who were recently bought by the American food giant Kraft, accepted the £389 million offer from the Canadians. The sale of the National Lottery to a foreign investor has raised questions regarding the National Lottery’s charitable obligations such as the many good causes funds plus the raising of £750m for the cost of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, before the actual sale of the National Lottery can take place the National Lottery Commission would need assuring that these charitable obligations will be adhered to.

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