Greece is not prepared to accept less than the agreed price for the sale of 14 regional airports to German company Fraport, said HRADF head Stergios Pitsiorlas.
The deal for the sale of state-owned airports of major cities and top tourist destinations has not been signed yet. The ND – PASOK government chose Fraport and its partner, Greek energy firm Copelouzos, to operate the airports.
President of Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund Stergios Pitsiorlas on Monday told Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper that there won’t be a reduction on the sale price. “We are not discussing any reduction in price… the deal will be signed as it is,” he said.
Fraport has agreed to pay a total of 1.2 billion euros for the 40-year lease. The annual rent will be 22.9 million euros and the Greek government will be getting 25 percent of before-tax profits, the total estimated at 1.2 billion euros.
Moreover the consortium has committed to investing 330 million euros in the first four years, while the total investment for the next four decades will reach 1.4 billion euros.
According to the newspaper report, Fraport executives visited some of the airports last week and met with union officials. Fraport representatives tried to negotiate the price on the grounds of finding it difficult to raise the funds on favourable terms because of ‘political instability’ in Greece.
The 14 airports are Thessaloniki, Corfu, Chania, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Aktion, Kavala, Rhodes, Kos, Samos, Mytilene, Mykonos, Santorini and Skiathos.
Negotiations for the privatization of the 14 airports had started when the New Democracy-PASOK coalition government was in power. If the deal is completed by the end of the year as reported, it would be the first privatization under the Alexis Tsipras leftist government.
