Bomb threat targets Czech lottery firm meeting

A threat to bomb a key meeting of creditors of debt-burdened Czech lottery company Sazka has been sent to the man appointed to sort out the company’s financial mess.

Sazka insolvency administrator Josef Cupka received the threat on Tuesday in an anonymous letter on which was written the word “friend.” According to the Czech news server Aktualně.cz, the printed letter warned him not to go to Thursday’s key meeting of creditors because of a bomb. The meeting, being held in a Prague ballroom because so many creditors are expected, should determine whether the lottery company is reorganized or declared bankrupt.

The letter has been handed over to a state prosecutor to decide what further steps to take, the news server said, adding that it is unlikely the creditors’ meeting will be cancelled.

The situation around Sazka has heated up with two of the main creditors, the PPF investment company of the richest Czech Petr Kellner and oil and gas billionaire Karel Komárek’s KKCG company dispatching a joint letter on Tuesday setting conditions not to back the lottery company’s reorganization and not to push for bankruptcy. The letter’s main condition is that current Sazka board chairman and general manager Aleš Hušák step down from his post.

The letter’s main condition is that current Sazka board chairman and general manager Aleš Hušák step down from his post. It also demands the PPF and KKCG nominees are appointed to a new board to select Hušák’s successor. The offer is sugar coated with a guarantee that existing shareholders retain at least a part of their current stakes and that contributions to sporting bodies and associations continue. The offer is not expected to run given the expected hostility of Sazka’s biggest shareholder, the grouping of sports associations, the Czech Association of Physical Education (ČSTV).  

Sazka, whose profits were previously widely distributed around Czech sporting associations, got into trouble when it was burdened with paying for the Prague arena that hosted many of the world ice hockey championship games in the Czech Republic in 2004. Originally called Sazka Arena, it has been known as O2 Arena since 2008.