Italians Seen Bidding for Greek Railways, Russians Uncertain
Italy's state railway is expected to bid for its Greek counterpart TRAINOSE, but Russian Railways (RZD) is less likely to do so, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
Privatisations, a key part of Greece's international bailout agreements since 2010, have reaped just 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) so far, far short of the initial target of 50 billion euros, amid political resistance, bureaucratic problems and union opposition.
Binding bids for Greece's railway network are due by 1400 GMT on Wednesday.
Athens is selling TRAINOSE and maintenance company ROSCO to meet the terms of its latest EU/IMF deal signed last summer. It received non-binding expressions of interest in TRAINOSE from Italy's state railway, RZD and Greek construction group GEK-Terna in April.
Sources familiar with the process said on Tuesday the Italians would most likely submit a binding bid by Wednesday, but it was not clear whether the Russians would.
The Russians did not appear particularly active in the process, one of the sources said, while GEK-Terna hadn't taken part in due diligence and so was unlikely to bid.
"I think that the Russians are interested in the Thessaloniki Port," the source said, referring to another asset Greece has put up for sale as part of its state-asset sale scheme aimed at raising about 6 billion euros by 2018.
Troubled Process
The government has not disclosed what it hopes to raise from the railways sale, but sources close to the process have said the figure was expected to be in the region of 50 million euros ($56 million) for TRAINOSE and ROSCO together.
Without a sale, TRAINOSE could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of euros in state subsidies to the European Union.
The original deadline for binding bids for TRAINOSE was April 26, but it has been pushed back three times this year, with investor interest sapped by Greece's protracted economic crisis.
A delay in TRAINOSE releasing its 2015 financial data has been another hurdle to the privatisation, as well as resistance from unions.
Greek metro and rail transport will come to a standstill on Wednesday after workers called a 24-hour strike to protest against the sale.
"Privatising this kind of property deprives the state of its wealth, and a state without property is a ghost-state," said Nikos Kioutsoukis, secretary general of Greece's biggest private sector union GSEE and member of Greece's railway workers confederation.
(By Angeliki Koutantou, Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou in Athens and Stephen Jewkes in Milan)
