The sale of the UK National Lottery to a giant Canadian pension fund for teachers might seem a little unusual to Europeans, who are not used to retirement plans that operate like private-equity firms. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has been doing that for nearly two decades - but in fact, this specific investment is of a much more long-term nature.

Ontario Teachers' interest in Camelot, operator of the lottery, first came to light in February, when it emerged as one of three bidders for the group - going up against CVC Capital Partners and BC Partners, as reported by Financial News. The final price is estimated at £389m (€432m) - other terms of the deal were not disclosed yesterday.