Baku, Azerbaijan, June 29
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Greece has announced a new tender for privatization of the country’s DESFA natural gas grid operator.
The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund S.A. (HRADF) invites interested parties to submit expressions of interest to participate in an international public competitive bidding tender process for the acquisition of a 66 percent stake in DESFA.
The new tender will involve again the sale of DESFA’s 66 percent (31 percent held by HRADF and 35 percent held by Hellenic Petroleum). The remaining 34 percent of DESFA shares shall be transferred to the government.
HRADF has appointed its financial and legal advisors for the execution of the new tender process namely Alantra Greece Corporate Advisors S.A., Alpha Bank A.E., Koutalidis Law Firm and Clifford Chance LLP.
The tender process will be conducted in two phases: pre-qualification phase and binding offers phase.
Interested Parties must be (a) transmission system operators certified in accordance with art. 9 and 10 of European Directive 2009/73/EC as well as members of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (“ENTSO-G”), or (b) legal entities solely controlled by such a transmission system operator, or(c) legal entities that have direct sole control over such a transmission system operator, or (d) legal entities solely controlled by the legal entity that has direct sole control over such a transmission system operator.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR won a tender in 2013 on the purchase of a 66-percent stake in DESFA for 400 million euros.
The Azerbaijani company intended to obtain a 31-percent stake from the Greek government and to buy a 35-percent stake in Hellenic Petroleum.
It was expected that the deal will be closed only after the purchase of at least a 17-percent stake out of SOCAR’s 66-percent by Italy’s Snam.
SOCAR, Snam and Greek government have been holding intensive talks against the background of changes in legislation that affected DESFA’s financial position and market value.
However, the parties were unable to reach an understanding and consequently, the deal was terminated Nov. 30.
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