Baltic, Belarus, Estonia, Markets and Companies

On Monday morning the price of Olympic Entertainment Group on the Tallinn stock exchange fell 1.6% as a result of the gaming group on Friday evening announcing it would freeze its operations in Poland and exit the Belarusian market.

The revenues and income of the Belarusian subsidiary of OEG in the first six months of 2016 amounted to 200,000 euros and operating loss amounted to 150,000 euros. In the first half-year the Belarusian operations constituted 0.2 % of the group's total revenue and income, the company told the stock exchange.

The liquidation of the Belarusian subsidiary will not cause the group any material impairment of assets nor liquidation related costs, which will be about 100,000 to 200,000 euros.

"Due to the lack of a valid location specific activity license, OEG is forced to freeze active operations in Poland from Sept. 24, but remains to be interested in continuing its operations on the Polish market and plans to participate in the upcoming public tenders for the licenses. The main purpose of freezing the active operations is to minimize the everyday costs and expenses," the company told the stock exchange.

Freezing the active operations of the Polish subsidiaries will result in an impairment of goodwill and assets in Poland with book value in the range of 9-10 mln euros and costs associated with freezing operations amount to about 1 mln euros.

The consolidated revenues and income of the Polish subsidiaries of OEG in the first six months of 2016 amounted to 9.4 mln euros and operating profit amounted to 500,000 euros. In the first half of 2016 the Polish operations constituted 10% of the group's total revenue and 4% of the group's operating profit.

OEG will maintain in Poland up to 15 job positions during the time when operations are frozen, and additionally current employees are offered the possibility to start working in 50 vacant positions in the group's subsidiaries in other countries. Employment relationships with other employees will be terminated in accordance with the law.

At the end of 2015 the company had one casino in Poland with 135 slot machines, 38 electronic roulette terminals, 25 gambling tables and four poker tables. It employed a workforce of 238. Revenue of OEG in the first six months of 2016 was 92.4 mln euros, 14% more than in the same period a year before, while net profit decreased 17% to 9.8 mln euros.