Greece sealed on Wednesday an agreement for the sale of a 33 percent stake in state-run gambling monopoly OPAP to Greek-Czech investment fund Emma Delta for 652 million euros (860.12 million U.S. dollars) in the first major sell off this year, as the privatization program accelerates.

"The first big privatization in our country has been successfully completed today," Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras announced in a statement issued by his office.

Adding that the agreement will be very beneficial for Greece, he stressed that the government intends to proceed with the privatization program with determination in order to pull the country out of the debt crisis as soon as possible.

Emma Delta was the only bidder left over the past few weeks out of eight contenders in the international tender. Initially the consortium had made an offer for 622 million euros, but it raised it on the request of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) which rejected the first proposal as insufficient.

OPAP has the exclusive rights to operate a dozen games until 2031, and some 35,000 video lottery terminals over the next decade. Last year the firm had around 500 million euro revenues.

With OPAP's sale, according to local media, citing state officials and analysts, Athens believes that it has laid the foundations to reach the target to raise 2.3 billion euros this year from its privatization program and some 10 billion euros by 2016.

Three years ago, when Greece struck the first bailout deal with European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders for financial assistance in return for an austerity and reform program to avoid a chaotic default and exit the crisis, the final goal was set at approximately 50 billion euros. However, due to delays in the implementation of the program, the targets have been revised.

Under the pressure of international creditors, Greece's government has promised to speed up the pace of asset sales in coming months in order to raise much needed revenues to finance growth policies to reverse recession now in its sixth straight year. (1 euro= 1.32 U.S dollars) Endi

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