(News Bulletin 247) – The European Commission validated this Thursday the exclusive rights granted by the State to the gambling operator after France, however, committed to ensuring that FDJ would add a price supplement of 97 million dinars. euros.

This is the epilogue of a soap opera that poisoned FDJ’s stock market life for more than three years.

In the summer of 2021, the European Commission opened an investigation into the grant by the French state to FDJ of exclusive rights to physical and online lottery as well as sports betting for a period of 25 years in exchange for a balance of 380 million euros. The European Commission sought to know whether this operation, carried out as part of the privatization of the group, had not provided an undue advantage to the company.

The verdict from the European Commission was then slow in coming. The market began to fear that it would result in a significant additional price for the group (the Citi bank mentioned more than 1.5 billion euros in 2022). This uncertainty undermined visibility on FDJ shares.

At the beginning of October, the CEO of FDJ, Stéphane Pallez, however estimated on BFM Business that this decision could soon arrive. As for a potential price supplement, if Brussels were to pronounce one, Stéphane Pallez judged that this “adjustment” would not exceed an amount “rather in the low hundreds of millions of euros, which we have fully taken into account “.

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The action jumps

It will ultimately be even less. This Thursday, the European Commission made its decision, putting an end to a real Arlesian situation.

Brussels has, ultimately, validated the principle of granting exclusive rights to the gambling operator.

However, as part of a discussion with the French State, the Commission validated modifications to the methodology for calculating these rights. This resulted in a price supplement of only 97 million euros (for a total, therefore, of 477 million euros).

“As France has committed to increasing the remuneration of the FDJ to 477 million euros, the Commission concluded that this measure (the granting of exclusive rights) did not constitute aid,” Brussels declared.

“On this basis, the Commission authorized the French measure under European Union state aid rules,” the Commission added.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, FDJ shares took off after this announcement, and gained 4.6% around 12:15 p.m., the communication from Brussels having fallen at 12 p.m.