UPDATE 2-France set to privatise lottery company -paper
(Adds stake holder information, historical details)
PARIS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The French government will privatise the national lottery company, La Francaise des Jeux, via a Bourse introduction next year, the Les Echos newspaper said in its Thursday edition.
La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) runs many games such as the standard Loto lottery, the Euromillions European lottery which last week had a record pay-out of 114 million euros ($160 million), Millionaire, Keno, scratch card games and others.
It had 2007 sales of 9.3 billion euros, with 28.5 million players and a network of 38,700 outlets all over the country. The national lottery was started in 1933 for the benefit of war victims and to offset agricultural disasters.
Euromillions was created in 2004. There are 46 lottery firms in Europe.
It will lose its monopoly in line with other national gaming companies as the sector is opened to competition with private firms such as Camelot Group Plc [LOTT.UL] or Ladbrokes Plc (LAD.L).
The paper said the government was preparing a law proposal for the end of the year for a flotation in 2009. The PMU horse betting agencies are also losing their monopoly, but their legal structure is more complex for a state sale.
Earlier in the day the head of the Francaise des Jeux, Christophe Blanchard-Dignac, told a news conference for a new game that the company was preparing for a decision by the state to reduce its 72 percent stake, and the company has hired Merrill Lynch & Co Inc MER.N as a financial adviser.
Blanchard-Dignac said that while online betting on sports events would be liberalised in the second half of 2009, some 96 percent of the company's activities remained within its monopoly.
Lagardère SCA (LAGA.PA) has been mentioned by some newspapers as a potential investor in FDJ, while Bouygues SA (BOUY.PA) or Vivendi SA (VIV.PA) could be interested in the online activities.
The FDJ staff has a 5 percent stake, historical French lottery organisations 20 percent and the Soficoma fund 3 percent, according to the 2007 annual report. (Reporting by Baptiste Cordier; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Phil Berlowitz)
