Cosco Group’s initial interest for a 67% stake in OLP, is further highlighting Chinese investors’ appetite for Greek assets as the state sells off parts of its businesses to go some way to balance the bailed out country’s books.
Greece last month picked a Chinese-backed bid to develop a prime seaside property at the former Athens airport Hellenikon.
Cosco’s subsidiary, COSCO Pacific, the world’s fifth largest container terminal operator, sealed a deal with Greece five years ago to run and upgrade two of the state-owned Piraeus port’s piers for 35 years, aiming to turn OLP into a regional hub.
Last year it agreed to invest an extra €230 million to boost the port’s handling capacity over seven years and in return, it would stop paying fees to OLP.
Sought for confirmation on his company’s interest in the project, ICTSI Vice-President and Treasurer Rafael J. Consing, Jr. replied by phone: “We cannot disclose any information on that ��”these things have to be disclosed properly.”
ICTSI runs the Manila International Container Terminal at the Port of Manila, as well as major terminals in Brazil, China, Ecuador, Madagascar, Pakistan and Poland. It also has operations in the British Virgin Islands, Brunei, the Cayman Islands, Croatia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mauritius, Panama, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, Uruguay and Venezuela.
HRADF said the largest US terminal operator Ports America; Dutch container terminal operator APM Terminals; private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group; and close-ended investment company Utilico Emerging Markets Limited had also submitted non-binding bids for OLP.
Since 2010, the crisis-hit country has signed deals worth €4.9 billion but raised only €2.7 billion from state assets sales, a key term of its €240-billion bailout agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Athens aims for privatization revenues of €1.5 billion this year by selling the stake in OLP and privatizing its railway operator TRAINOSE, rolling stock company ROSCO and some regional airports, among other assets. Binding offers for OLP are expected by end of the year.
Piraeus is one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe, according to OLP data, and one of the top cargo ports in the Mediterranean. Cargo traffic rose 15% to 3.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2013. Greece has also put up for grabs its second biggest port, in the northern city in Thessaloniki. The deadline for non-binding bids expires on June 5. Despite the crisis, OLP’s net profit rose 12% to €8 million last year.