A “mammoth” bank loan is still due before the Hellinikon investment project can proceed with works after it overcomes the last bureaucratic hurdles and all decisions by ministries and other public bodies give the green light.
The Hellenic Development consortium consists of Lamda Development, China’s Fosun and Abu Dhabi’s Eagle Hills. The company is close to finalize a credit agreement with Greek and foreign banks, conservative daily kathimerini reported on Tuesday.
At the same time, the share capital increase is being evaluated, the exact amount, the time of implementation and the way of covering which have not been finalized yet.
The announcements are forecast to be expected by the end of the month and will likely include an extraordinary general meeting to approve both the bond loan (credit line) and the equity increase under consideration.
Lamda Development of billionaire, shipowner and banker Spyros Latsis and the other partners reportedly discusses with Greek and foreign banks about the capital raising.
Will the Greeks who recapitalized the Greek banks with their cut wages and pensions have to finance the huge project? Help again for the “sake of investment and jobs creation” this time? Not to mention that if the loan comes mainly form Greek banks, that money will be deprived from the Greek businesses.
Although kathimerini did not disclose the height of the loan, some talk about over one billion euros. The loan will be used to finance the first phase of the 8-billion-euros project.
The Hellinikon investment project is proceeding on fast speed after the change of the government that sees in the project a flagship that will attract more investors in the country.
The financial issues are scheduled to conclude within 2019.
It should be reminded that Latsis bought the premises of the old airport in Athens for the spot price of 92 euros per square meter, so much one would give to by a plot in the countryside and not the plot at the Athens Riviera.
The value of the plot before the Greek economic crisis was estimated at 20 billion euros. It was reportedly sold for only €915 million.
When the agreement between the Greek privatization fund HRADF and the investors was signed in autumn 2014 under the New Democracy-PASOK coalition government, then main opposition had described it as a “scandalous sale.”
PS The usual mean Greeks wonder now on social media whether it was not the SYRIZA government that was blocking the project but the fact that the investor had not secured the projects funding.
Beyond scandal, unbelievable.
Not mentioned here is one of Latsis’ [LAMDA] conditions for the purchase.
(Yes, this thieving junta-era really DID set conditions for buying the site at minimum 10% of its real value, thus lumbering the greek taxpayers further with paying off the missing billions of his ‘bargain.’ )
The condition was that any investments or businesses LAMDA makes on the site is tax-free in perpetuity. This means that Hellinikon is now set to be an Onshore Offshore Island. All an “investor” need do is make his business a LAMDA partnership.
Re-writing the law to have a Casino there was another “condition”.
A third condition was not having to pay a penny of the purchase price for 10 years. I assume thus that the will include the purchase payment.
A total swindle of the Greek people and a laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank WIN for our very crooked euro mafia.
Sorry….corrected version :
I assume, thus, that the ‘mammoth bank loan’ will include inside it the actual purchase. What a scam.