German-led consortium signs Greek port buy after Promsvyazbank hurdle

Thessaloniki Port Authority SA

21/12/2017 17:45

ATHENS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A German-led consortium bought a 
majority stake in Greece's second-biggest port on Thursday, a 
week after the deal was put on hold because its guarantor, 
Russia's Promsvyazbank, had to be bailed out. 
    Deutsche Invest and its partners, France's Terminal Link SAS 
and Cyprus-based Belterra Investments, signed the deal for a 67 
percent stake in Thessaloniki Port  OLTr.AT  with Greece's 
privatisations agency HRADF. 
    The deal is worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.31 billion), HRADF 
said, and the consortium has offered 231.9 million euros to take 
over the port as well as to spend at least 180 million euros to 
upgrade its infrastructure within seven years. 
    The sale is part of a privatisation scheme Greece has agreed 
under its latest international bailout. It had to postpone the 
signing for a week to Thursday after Promsvyazbank was placed 
under temporary administration.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1OF4LV 
    The agreement must be ratified by the Greek parliament and 
the transaction is expected to be completed within the first 
three months of 2018, the agency said. 
    Under its bailout agreement, Greece has committed to 
launching the sale of stakes in a number of airport, oil, gas 
and water utilities next year. 
    Last year, it sold a majority stake in its largest port, 
Piraeus  BOPr.AT , to China's biggest shipping company COSCO 
Shipping. 
    Thessaloniki Port's container traffic stood at about 327,000 
TEUs (20-foot equivalent container units) in the 
January-to-October period, a 16.5 percent annual rise. 
 
($1 = 0.8425 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; editing by Mark Heinrich) 
 ((karolina.tagaris@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376 455;)) 
 
Keywords: EUROZONE GREECE/PRIVATISATION PORT