Greece wants to sell smaller stake in gas grid operator

1/11/2017

ATHENS (Reuters) -- Greece wants to keep a majority stake in its gas grid operator DESFA and sell only a small holding to investors after a previous plan to sell a 66% stake collapsed, a Greek newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Under its privatization program, a key part of its international bailout, Greece and its biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum had agreed to sell the DESFA stake to Azerbaijan's SOCAR for $422 million.

The energy ministry was not immediately available for comment, but when asked about the Kathimerini report, a senior ministry official said "everything is being examined."

The deal collapsed last year after Athens passed legislation raising DESFA's gas tariffs by a lower amount than SOCAR had expected and SOCAR asked for a lower price.

Asked if there would be a new tender, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "De facto."

Greece's energy ministry has proposed to its lenders a new plan under which the country would maintain a 51% stake in DESFA and divest just 14% to investors, Kathimerini reported. But the official said the precise model would be decided with its lenders as part of ongoing negotiations under its bailout review.

Greece's privatization agency currently holds 65% in DESFA and Hellenic Petroleum owns the rest.

Greece is expected to have missed its 2.5 billion euros bailout target for privatization proceeds last year and to have raised only 500 million euros, according to its 2017 budget.

It expected revenues of 2.6 billion euros from the scheme this year, including 180 million euros from the DESFA sale.

Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; editing by Susan Thomas