Lottery sale20 Jul 2022 10:17
The PPS lottery is a legacy business that is not part of the fin tech banking business going forward.
Some pi’s seem to think that as the acquisition of the lottery business has not yet closed, this is a failure of Richard and his team and an example of where targets are not being met. I do not think that this analysis is correct for the following reasons:
1) the delay is due to requirements of the Charity Commission. Although PPS is not a large lottery operator, it does provide benefit to many small charities. As we have seen with the passport office, DVLA, backlogs have built up in administrative processes and significant delays are the result. I do not know the specifics of the delay in the completion of the PPS transaction, but I would imagine that these factors may also be at play at the Charity Commission/hundreds of small charities;
2) the PPS has been hived off into an off balance sheet vehicle, and hence is no longer part of Tintra’s business operations. This is important as Middle East investors will now be able to invest in Tintra without the link to a lottery/gambling business;
3) when plans are created, some aspects go faster and unfortunately some do not go according to plan. The key is that the overall plan stays on target and that the overall project is not derailed. In this case, Tintra’s project is ahead of plan and the lottery has not derailed the project
So for me the lottery disposal is an unfair criticism