George Georgiopoulos News

Iran has agreed to release the crews of two Greek tankers it seized in May in response to the confiscation of oil by the United States from an Iranian-flagged tanker in Greece, a Greek seafarers union said.The months-long diplomatic impasse has strained relations between Athens and Tehran as tensions grow between Iran and the United States.The crews will be replaced, allowing their return to their countries of origin soon, the PENEN union for seafarers on commercial ships said on its website on Sunday. It was not clear whether the two Greek tankers, the MT Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon, would be released, it said.On Monday, the Greek shipping minister confirmed that one Delta Poseidon crew member was returning to Greece."A Greek sailor from the vessel Delta Poseidon…

Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s four largest lenders, said on Tuesday it had reached a deal to sell a portfolio of non-performing shipping loans to an entity affiliated with Davidson Kempner Capital Management.The agreed price will be about 53% of the portfolio’s gross book value of 400 million euros ($452 million), the bank said.The sale of the portfolio, dubbed project Dory, is subject to approval by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, a shareholder in Piraeus Bank, the lender said.The transaction will reduce Piraeus Bank’s ratio of non-performing exposures to about 15% from 16% at the end

A Turkish-flagged cargo ship carrying 382 mostly Afghan migrants docked safely at a Greek island's port early on Sunday, two days after losing power in the Aegean Sea and sending out a distress signal.Six people among what was the country's biggest single influx of migrants in years were detained after the vessel, the Murat 729, was towed into Kos port by a Greek coast guard ship, the migration ministry said.The other arrivals were taken to a reception centre on the island. Their stay at the center…

Greece's privatizations agency transferred shares corresponding to a 16% stake in Piraeus Port Authority to Chinese port operator COSCO Shipping after an amendment to a previous concession agreement, it said on Thursday.Last month Greek lawmakers amended a deal with COSCO allowing it to raise its stake in Greece's biggest port of Piraeus, paving the way for Greece to secure a major investment.Under a 2016 privatization deal, COSCO Shipping bought a 51% stake in Piraeus Port Authority for 280 million euros ($328 million) and committed to mandatory investments worth about 294 million euros over

Greece has received five non-binding bids to operate part of a port in northern city of Kavala, the country's privatization agency (HRADF) said on Friday.HRADF received expressions of interest for a sub-concession to operate a multipurpose terminal of Philippos II port, currently operated by Kavala Port Authority.The initial bidders are a consortium of IMERYS SA, Goldair Cargo and I.M.G., and the International Port Investments Kavala consortium, which includes Black Summit Financial Group, EFA Group and GEK TERNA.

Tensions spiked between Greece and Turkey on Monday over offshore rights in the eastern Mediterranean, with Athens vowing to push its EU peers to activate sanctions against Ankara.The deterioration in relations followed the departure earlier on Monday of a Turkish ship, the Oruc Reis, to conduct work south of the Greek island of Kastellorizo, which is close to Turkey's southern coast.Greece's foreign ministry described the development as a "major escalation" and a "direct threat to peace in the region".Ankara had withdrawn the same vessel from contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean last month to "allow for diplomacy" before an EU summit at which Cyprus pushed for sanctions against Turkey."Turkey has proven it lacks credibility.

Twelve crew members of a cruise ship that docked at Piraeus port near Athens on Tuesday tested negative for the novel coronavirus in repeat checks by Greek health authorities, the ship's operator TUI Cruises said.The Mein Shiff 6 cruise ship had departed from Heraklion in Crete on Sunday with all 922 passengers having tested negative before boarding.But sample tests on 150 members out of the ship's total crew of 666, conducted at a land lab, detected 12 COVID-19 infections.Sailing off the island of Milos, the cruise liner made its way back to Piraeus, the country's biggest port, with better access to health services and equipped to deal with any emergency.

A cruise ship carrying about 920 passengers was expected to dock at Piraeus port near Athens, after 12 of its crew members tested positive for the coronavirus, an official at Greece's Civil Protection agency said on Monday.The Mein Shiff 6, operated by TUI Cruises, departed from Heraklion in Crete on Sunday with all passengers having tested negative before boarding.But sample tests on 150 crew members out of a total of 666, detected 12 infections. The ship's operators TUI Cruises said six of the 12 had since tested negative."They are all asymptomatic," the civil protection official said.

Cyprus is ready to engage in talks with Turkey to resolve differences but only "without blackmail and threats", President Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday.The two countries are locked in a dispute over drilling rights in the Mediterranean, and Turkey said on Tuesday it had extended a drilling vessel's operations in disputed waters off Cyprus until Oct. 12."Nicosia has been always ready for a dialogue but for that ... to be effective, it needs to be clearly defined based on international law…

Greece said on Tuesday it had had no request for an oil tanker at the centre of a row between Iran and the U.S. to dock at one of its ports, as Washington warned Greece against helping the vessel.The Adrian Darya 1 - formerly the Grace 1 - left Gibraltar on Aug 18. Ship tracking data on Tuesday showed the vessel was heading to the Greek port of Kalamata on the southern coast of the Peloponnese, and was scheduled to arrive on Aug. 26."The vessel is cruising at low speed and there is still no formal announcement that it will arrive at Kalamata," a Greek shipping ministry spokesman said.Reporting By Michele Kambas and George Georgiopoulos

Greece concluded the sale of 67 percent stake in Thessaloniki port, the country's second-largest, to a German-led consortium, its privatisations agency (HRADF) said on Friday. Deutsche Invest and its partners, France's Terminal Link SAS and Cyprus-based Belterra Investments, signed the deal in December. The sale is part of a privatisation scheme Greece has agreed under its latest international bailout. The deal is worth 1.1 billion euros, HRADF said, and the consortium has already…

Greece's coast guard seized about 1.3 tonnes of processed cannabis, hidden aboard a foreign flagged fishing vessel intercepted off the southern island of Crete, it said on Sunday. The drug bust was the result of a three-day operation. Greek authorities had been informed by French customs that a suspect ship was sailing to the southeast of the island, possibly carrying illegal cargo. The operation involved four coast guard patrol vessels and two planes, one belonging to Frontex - the European border and coast guard agency.

Greece will not tolerate any challenges to its territorial integrity, its prime minister said on Thursday, days after Turkish and Greek coastguard vessels collided close to disputed islets in the Aegean Sea. Each side blamed the other for Monday’s collision off an islet known as Imia in Greek and Kardak in Turkish. They came to the brink of war in 1996 in a sovereignty dispute over the islets. Seeking international support, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras underlined that Greece’s border was also that of the 28-nation European Union, and his foreign minister briefed the head of NATO and the U.S.

China's COSCO Shipping , owner of the world's fourth largest container fleet, took a 51 percent stake in Greece's largest port on Wednesday. The sale of Piraeus Port had been suspended by the leftist-led government when it won elections in January 2015 but talks resumed after Greece agreed an 86 billion euro bailout deal with its euro zone partners. COSCO agreed to buy 51 percent of Piraeus Port (OLP) in April for 280.5 million euros ($312.51 million) under a deal signed with the HRADF, Greece's privatisation agency. COSCO bought 51 percent of Piraeus Port (OLP) for 280.5 million euros ($312.51 million), acquiring a block of 12.75 million shares in OLP. COSCO Shipping executive Wan Min rang the opening bell at the Athens bourse at a ceremony to mark the agreement.

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.

Hundreds of migrants were rescued from a sinking ship on Friday in a massive operation in the southern Mediterranean off the island of Crete, the Greek coastguard said, but four bodies were also recovered. Greek search and rescue teams were dispatched to the area, about 75 nautical miles off southern Crete in territory which falls under Egypt's jurisdiction. In total, 340 people were rescued by midday, Greek authorities said. There was no immediate information on the nationalities of the migrants or on the victims. Greek media said the wooden boat the migrants were sailing in started taking in water. It was not immediately clear where the boat had sailed from.

A Greek frigate searching for a missing Egyptair aircraft discovered two large plastic floating objects in a sea area 230 miles south of the island of Crete on Thursday, Greek defence sources said. The two objects appeared to be pieces of plastic in white and red. They were spotted close to an area where a transponder signal was emitted earlier, the sources said. Reporting By Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos

Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean where an EgyptAir aircraft vanished from radar screens early on Thursday, its defence ministry said. The search for the missing EgyptAir plane was taking place at sea, about 130 nautical miles southeast of the island of Karpathos, the Greek defence ministry said. "One C-130 aircraft and an early-warning EMB-145H plane are already operating in the area. Another C-130 plane is on standby at Kasteli airport on the (southern Greek) island of Crete," Greece's military command said. A civil aviation source said the operation was conducted in an area between Greek and Egyptian airspace.

The Athens stock exchange on Tuesday suspended trading in shares of Piraeus Port Authority before the privatisation agency unseals bids by investors for a majority stake in the country's biggest port later in the day. Greece, which is selling a 51 percent stake in Piraeus Port, expects that China's Cosco Group will be the sole bidder, according to Greek officials close to the procedure. "Following a request by the securities regulator, a temporary trading suspension on shares of Piraeus Port Authority is in place until the company informs the investment public on the board meeting of (privatisation agency) HDRAF regarding the opening of financial offers," the Athens bourse said.   Reporting by George Georgiopoulos

Greece's privatizations agency on Thursday announced deadlines for bids on tenders for the country's two largest ports and state railways TRAINOSE, assets Athens has agreed to sell as part of a new three-year bailout by its international lenders. Greek privatization proceeds, excluding bank shares, are expected to total 6.4 billion euros between 2015 and 2017, under terms of the bailout. The privatizations agency set an October deadline for binding bids for Piraeus Port, a December deadline for bids for TRAINOSE and a February 2016 deadline for Thessaloniki Port. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos)

Greek authorities have seized a freighter carrying an undeclared shipment of weapons en route from Turkey to Libya, coast guard officials said on Wednesday. A coast guard patrol boat raided the vessel on Tuesday, 20 nautical miles northeast of Crete. The freighter, with a crew of seven and which had sailed from the Turkish port of Iskenderun, was escorted to Heraklion port on the island. The United Nations has imposed an embargo on weapons shipments to Libya, which is plagued by factional conflict. "The ship's crew is being questioned and the content of its containers will be checked," a coast guard official said, declining to be named. The coast guard provided no further details of what kind of arms the freighter had on board, or its ownership.

About 200 unregistered migrants trying to board a ship scuffled with police and coastguard officials on the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, a coastguard spokesman told Reuters. Police used teargas to disperse the migrants, a reporter at the scene for the Greek news channel ANT1 said. "About 200 migrants that were not registered tried to get on a ferry at the port and they were pushed back by the police and the coastguard," coastguard spokesman Nikos Lagkadianos said. Greece is on a front line of a migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of people, many fleeing war and poverty, arriving on its shores every day. European Union officials…

Eleven migrants including six infants drowned when their boat capsized off the Greek island of Samos, trapping most of them in the cabin, the coast guard said on Sunday. Fifteen others were rescued when the six-metre boat sank in the early hours near the coast of the Aegean island. The death toll from drowning among thousands of refugees making the short but dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece's eastern islands has risen in recent weeks as autumn weather has set in, bringing high winds and falling temperatures. "We recovered 11 drowned bodies, 10 of which were trapped inside the vessel's cabin," a coast guard official said, adding that the dead included four babies, two children and four women.