UPDATE: The bank Promsvyazbank that has issued the Letter of Guarantee for the consortium that will buy the port of Thessaloniki has gone under temporary management. Following this development the signing of the agreement will take place on 21st of December.
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An agreement for the sale of 67 pct of the Thessaloniki Port Authority to a private investor is to be signed at the offices of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) on Friday afternoon, following its approval by the Greek Court of Audit.

The agreement must then be approved by the Competition Commission, after which the revised concession agreement between the Greek state and the Thessaloniki Port Authority will be ratified by Parliament.

The completion of the transaction – with the payment of the agreed sum and the transfer of the shares to the investor – is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2018.

The agreement does not include the sale of port infrastructure, which has been leased to the Thessaloniki Port Authority via a concession until 2051.

The investment, based on existing information, is estimated to reach 1.1 billion euros in total. The agreement requires the investor to pay a price of 231,926,000 euros upon signing the contract and carry out mandatory investments of 180 million euros in the next seven years. The revenue for the state from the concession contract (3.5 pct of the port authority’s turnover) is expected to exceed 170 million euros. Also included in the calculation are forecast dividend payments to HRADF for the remaining 7.22 pct share and additional investments until the contract’s end in 2051.

The sale agreement will be signed by HRADF Board Chairman Aris Xenofos and Sotiris Theofanis, representing the consortium Deutsche Invest Equity Partners GmbH, Belterran Investments Limited and Terminal Link SAS, and Boris Wenzel, CEO of Terminal Link SAS.

Source: thegreekobserver.com