The biggest privatization case is not lost. German state-run enterprise FRAPORT expressed confidence that it can indeed sign the contracts for the privatization of 14 regional Greek airport in a couple of months. The deal that was threatened to go bust in August when the German partner of the German-Greek consortium Fraport-Slentel seemed to reconsider the offer it had made to Greece in October 2014.
According to Reuters, “Fraport is confident it can sign contracts for an airports concession in Greece in the next three to six months, its chief executive said.
“We are in very intensive talks with Greece,” Stefan Schulte said on Wednesday.
Greek economy minister George Stathakis said in August that the 1.2 billion euro ($1.35 billion) deal may be wrapped up in March.
Greece named Fraport and its Greek partner, energy firm Copelouzos, as the preferred bidder to operate 14 airports in tourist destinations, including Corfu and Santorini, at the end of last year. It was one of Greece’s biggest privatisations since the start of the debt crisis.”
The deal that was threatened to go bust in August when the German FRAPORT seemed to reconsider the offer it had made to Greece in October 2014. Fraport was reportedly asking for more guarantees for its 2 billion and a couple of million euro investment guarantees from the Greek government following the political and economic uncertainty in the first months of 2015. The group was also “facing greater financing costs due to the higher country risk associated with Greece,” media reported in August.
But apparently after the signature of the 3.bailout agreement between Greece and its lenders and the elections of September 20th, things smoothed out and stability returned to the country, and Fraport decided it had enough guarantees?
Probably not. We will know about the result of the “intensive talks” in 3-6 months.
