Updating the market, Estonian gambling operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) has completed the liquidation of Belarusian subsidiary Olympic Casino BEL as the company completes its full Belarus exit.
Issuing a short corporate statement, OEG governance detailed that its market exit would have no impact on its group performance and that the firm had no remaining interest or assets in the Belarus gambling sector.
In 2016, OEG governance disclosed that the company would withdraw its market operations from Belarus and Poland due to unfavourable business and tax conditions. In its full-year 2016 financial statement OEG accounted a €9 million cost for withdrawing from the markets.
The announcement of its full Belarus exit, follows this month’s news that OEG has been forced to restructure assets within the Latvian capital city of Riga, as the Riga City Council has banned all gambling parlours and premises from operating within its ‘historic city centre’.
Riga City Council has given gambling operators until 2022 to close affected premises, of which OEG currently operates seven slot parlours within the area.
At Present OEG operates 54 casinos in Latvia, the revenues before gaming taxes of the Latvian subsidiaries of OEG amounted to €66.2 million and operating profit to € 24.1 million in 2016, with its Latvian operations currently employing circa +900 staff members.
Source: SBC News
