Piraeus Port Posts Flat Profit, Sales Dip

Greece's Piraeus Port (OLP) , the largest in the country, said its first-half net profit was almost unchanged from the same year-ago period, while sales fell.

Piraeus Port, which is privatisation, is one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe, a popular destination for cruise ships and one of the top cargo ports in the Mediterranean.

The state-owned company reported a net profit of 3.3 million euros (4.3 million US dollar) in the first six months of 2014.

Sales dropped by 3.3 percent to 50.2 million euros, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

China's Cosco Pacific won a 35-year concession in 2009 to upgrade and run two container cargo piers at the port. It wants to turn Piraeus into a regional hub.

The Chinese company is among five suitors shortlisted as potential buyers of a majority stake in OLP, highlighting Chinese investors' appetite for Greek assets as the crisis-hit country sells off parts of its businesses, a key term of its 240-billion euro bailout plan by the EU and the IMF.

U.S. terminal operator Ports America; Dutch container terminal operator APM Terminals; Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services; and close-ended investment company Utilico Emerging Markets Limited are the other potential investors.

(1 US dollar = 0.7587 euro)

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, editing by Louise Heavens)