Deutsche Invest highest bidder for Greece's Thessaloniki Port (updated)

Thessaloniki Port Authority SA

24/04/2017 17:32

(Adds detail) 
    ATHENS, April 24 (Reuters) - German private equity firm 
Deutsche Invest Equity Partners was the highest bidder for a 
majority stake in Greece's Thessaloniki Port  OLTr.AT  with an 
offer of 231.9 million euros ($251.8 million), privatisation 
agency HRADF said on Monday.  
    The sale is a key part of the country's international 
bailout signed in 2015 and comes less than a year after China's 
COSCO Shipping  600428.SS  bought a 51 percent stake in Piraeus 
Port  OLPr.AT , Greece's biggest, for 280.5 million euros. 
    The bid for Greece's second-largest port by Deutsche Invest 
Equity Partners, which has teamed up with France's Terminal Link 
SAS, represents a premium of about 70 percent over the stake's 
current market value of 136.5 million euros. 
    HRADF received three bids in March for a 67 percent stake in 
the port. The other two bidders were Philippines-based 
International Container Terminal Services (ICTS) and Dubai-based 
P&O Steam Navigation Company (DP World). 
    The agency had asked the suitors to improve their offers by 
April 21 and unsealed them at a board meeting on Monday. 
    Deutsche Invest Equity Partners and Terminal Link SAS will 
also take over the operation of the port for the next 34 years 
under a separate lease agreement that Greece expects to bring in 
more than 170 million euros in additional revenue. 
    Thessaloniki Port had a throughput of 344,277 20-foot 
equivalent units (TEUs) in 2016. 
    The winning consortium will need to invest 180 million euros 
to upgrade the port in the next seven years and raise throughput 
to 550,000 Us. 
    The agreement needs approvel by a Greek court of auditors 
and other relevant authorities. 
 
($1 = 0.9208 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Karolina Tagaris 
and Adrian Croft) 
 ((angeliki.koutantou@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376436; 
Reuters Messaging: angeliki.koutantou.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: EUROZONE GREECE/PRIVATISATION PORT