By Angeliki Koutantou

ATHENS, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Greece mentioned that ultimate bids for a majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority, operator of its greatest port, have been submitted on Monday however the potential consumers won’t be made public till early subsequent month.

Alexis Tsipras’s authorities had halted the sale after profitable elections in January however resumed the method below the 86 billion-euro bailout deal it agreed with its euro zone companions in the summertime.

The deadline for ultimate bids was 1700 GMT on Monday.

“The procedure for the submission of binding offers for Piraeus Port Authority was completed today,” the nation’s privatisation company (HRADF) mentioned in an announcement.

The company mentioned there can be an announcement on Jan. 12 when the bids can be unsealed.

A senior HRADF official mentioned earlier on Monday: “We will delay the opening because of the (Christmas) holidays, which means it will be around Jan. 10.”

Greece has mentioned that China’s Cosco Group, Denmark’s container terminal operator APM Terminals and Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services have been within the sale.

A 51 % stake within the port is up on the market, down from an authentic 67 % and leaving the federal government with 23 %. Would-be consumers could choose to amass a further 16 % stake over 5 years after finishing obligatory investments of about 300 million euros.

Athens repeatedly postponed the submission of binding bids after altering a few of the phrases of the concession in an effort to deal with the issues of native authorities.

WORKERS PROTEST

Dock employees fearing job cuts have opposed the additional privatisation of each Piraeus and of Thessaloniki Port Authority , operator of the nation’s second greatest port which can be 74 % government-owned.

Container port employees throughout the nation walked out and demonstrated in central Athens on Monday, asking for each gross sales to be cancelled.

“It’s a kind of policy that undermines the country’s growth because it sells its advantage, Piraeus and Thessaloniki ports, to foreign state monopolies,” the top of Greece’s port employees union George Georgakopoulos instructed Greek tv.

“The fire-sale of the port should stop.”

The sale of a 51 % stake in Piraeus may fetch about $200 million based mostly on the corporate’s market worth of just below $390 million on Monday.

The port, a gateway to Asia, jap Europe and northern Africa, dealt with 16.8 million passengers and three.6 million 20-foot equal models (TEUs) of containers final yr. Cosco has been working one of many port’s container terminals since 2008, the one terminal which remained opened on Monday.

Privatisations, a key ingredient of Greece’s bailouts since 2010, have produced income of solely 3.5 billion euros to this point. Athens concluded a 1.2 billion-euro airport leasing take care of Germany’s Fraport earlier this month, hoping this may assist it to fulfill its goal for privatisation proceeds of three billion euros subsequent yr. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman)

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