OPAP confirms Sazka’s Mucha as new financial chief

Greek operator OPAP has appointed Sazka Group’s Pavel Mucha as its new chief financial officer, effective 1 October.

Czech national Mucha will succeed Michal Houst, who is set to leave the operator by the end of September 2019.

Mucha is currently serving as CFO at Sazka Group, the Czech gaming and lottery giant that last month tabled an offer of €2.06bn (£1.89bn/$2.29bn) to gain full control of OPAP.

Prior to his time with Sazka, Mucha served in a number of senior financial roles with the likes of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and British American Tobacco. He also spent time as a tax consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Should Sazka’s acquisition of the OPAP shares go through as expected, it would represent the largest all-cash voluntary offer in Greece for more than a decade.

Sazka already holds a 33% stake in OPAP via Emma Delta, a business of which it is the majority shareholder with a 66.7% stake, and is now seeking to acquire the remaining 67% of shares in order to assume full control of the business.

OPAP recently announced news of an acquisition deal of its own when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding to buy Intralot’s stake in the Hellenic Lotteries business for €20m.

The deal, brokered by the OPAP Investment Limited subsidiary, will see OPAP take ownership of the supplierl’s 511,500 shares in Hellenic Lotteries, representing 16.5% of the total share capital.