Marine Link
Thursday, March 28, 2024

COSCO not seen bidding for Greek Rail Centre

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

August 1, 2016

Greece is still struggling to find investors for a rail freight hub that it has been trying to set up since 2008, sources close to the process said on Monday.

China's COSCO had been expected to team up with other investors after the Greek government launched a new tender for the 250 million euro ($280 million) investment project last year, part of a bid to turn Greece to a European transhipment hub.

Greece, which had to turn to its euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund in 2010 for help in riding out a debt crisis, is still struggling to revive its economy.

The selected investor will have to build a terminal with access to the national railway network and Greece's largest port in Piraeus and operate it for 60 years. The deadline for binding bids - which was pushed back twice this year to give investors more time to prepare - expires at 1300 GMT on Monday.

A potential suitor, China's COSCO along with Greek real estate developer Grivalia and real estate investment firm NBG Pangaea, a unit of National Bank, will not submit an offer, two officials told Reuters.

Greek media have reported the firms were interested in the tender.

"Our potential interest in Thriasio was always linked with COSCO as we are not a logistics company and thus not a basic user. As Cosco is not going to bid, we will not either," said an executive at NBG Pangaea, who declined to be named.

Another official at Grivalia said the company would not take part in the tender either.

China COSCO Shipping bought a majority stake this year in Piraeus Port in one of Greece's biggest privatisations, a move which fits with China's "one belt, one road" policy of building a modern silk road to boost trade.

Another potential bidder, ETBA, a unit of Piraeus Bank which manages and develops industrial parks, was interested in the tender, an official close to the process said.

"ETBA has a positive view on the asset," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

There were media reports that ETBA along with Greece's Goldair, which offers cargo and logistics services, could possibly submit an offer for Thriasio. Goldair was not immediately available for comment.


Reporting by George Georgiopoulos