The representatives of the foreign companies met individually with the members of the National Development Bank (BNDES) and Ernst & Young (EY) in person, while the technicians from the Secretariat for Fiscal, Energy and Lottery Monitoring (SEFEL) joined the meeting via a video conference.
As Games Magazine Brazil found out, all the parties were satisfied with the meetings considering them "positive and honest" since they were able to express their opinion freely about all the doubts generated by the absence of offers on June 25.
Most of the reasons of the companies to explain why they did not submit proposals went through the uncertainty that was born from Provisional Measure (MP) 841 promulgated by President Michel Temer which provides for the destination of the proceeds from the collection of lotteries for security actions.
The MP received 95 amendments from the deputies and senators of the Joint Commission that should analyze it. Several of them ask to reduce the prizes and funds destined to expenses of costing and maintenance of the operative agent of the new LOTEX.
By now it is known that the MP 841 will be modified although it is unknown if the changes that President Michel Temer will accept avoid the legal risk that investors want in order to bid for LOTEX.
The idea of SEFEL and BNDES is to clearly diagnose the reasons for the lack of offers, to closely monitor the final result on the MP 841 changes and, after it becomes law, publish new edicts with as few changes as possible to try make a new LOTEX auction later this year.
Both bodies are confident that this process can still be finalized in 2018 despite the October presidential election. Without a deadline, SEFEL and BNDES did not plan to set dates as there are several issues to be solved first.
The auction of the so-called "scratch card" has suffered several delays, changes in grant values and rules, generally with the objective of attracting a leading foreign company to operate in Brazil and compete in the lottery segment with the Caixa Econômica Federal, which was obliged to stay out of the auction.
According to the bidding documents, the concession should be for 15 years, with a value of R$ 542 million (US$ 140mn). The studies prepared by BNDES pointed to the possibility of a total collection, by the concessionaire, in the order of R$ 6 billion (US$ 1.55bn) since the fifth year of operation of the service.
Source: GMB
