The sale of 67% of the two major ports of Greece is turning into an economic-political thriller. The background moves for both the Piraeus Port Authority and the Port Authority of Thessaloniki are intense.

The start came with the call for interest for OLP(Piraeus Port Authority) SA from HRADF and OLTH (Thessaloniki Port Authority) followed on Monday. The Troika’s pressure towards the government to move forward for Thessaloniki’s port has been growing, since it is a prerequisite for the disbursement of the 8.3 billion euro tranche.

According to information, Troika officials have not  imposed the sale of 67% of the Thessaloniki Port Authority SA. “What their message was that for two years now, you have been discussing doing something about it, so go ahead and move forward with the whole process”, noted sources.

According to the same sources, since the Fund did not have the necessary studies for concessions ready, it proceeded with the solution of sale.

According to information interest in OLTH (TPA) has been expected to be shown by more companies that the PPA where Cosco is dominant. This will happen since Thessaloniki does not have any other “major players”, like in Piraeus. The topic is being looked over by Swiss-Italian MSC, Chinese Cosco and Hutchison, Dubai Ports World and the French CMA-CDM.