Bids for Greek Piraeus Port Sale Pushed Back

Posted by Michelle Howard October 23, 2015

Greece has pushed back the date to submit binding bids for a majority stake in its biggest port Piraeus to Dec. 3, the head of its privatization agency said on Friday.

China's Cosco Group, Danish container terminal operator APM Terminals and Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services were to submit bids on Oct. 30 for a 51 percent stake in OLP.

But an early Sept. 20 election held up work and the deadline was pushed back.

"We had some delays with the concession agreements so we moved the date to Dec. 3," the head of Greece's privatization agency Stergios Pitsiorlas told Reuters. "Investors have been notified."

Setting a date for binding bids for Piraeus and Thessaloniki ports is one of the actions Athens needs to take to unlock the next tranche of its 86 billion euro international bailout.

Pitsiorlas also said the submission of binding bids for Greek railways (TRAINOSE) and its rolling stock operator (ROSCO) will be postponed to mid January from December.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou)