Greek privatization procedures already at a mature stage and not requiring any legislative revisions or presidential decrees, such as the ongoing ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) sale, would not be affected by early elections ahead of the completion of the government’s four-year mandate in October 2019, even if these were to be held as early as March, prospective buyers in the ELPE sale, offering a 50.1 percent stake, have been assured by the privatization fund TAIPED in response to questions on the matter.

Two new participants, US firm Carlyle and Algeria’s Sonatrach, are believed to have established respective partnerships with the privatization’s list of two existing candidates, Switzerland’s Glencore and Dutch company Vitol. However, to date, no official announcements have been made on the Glencore-Carlyle and Vitol-Sonatrach pairings.

If verified, the ELPE sale’s new entries can be expected to raise hopes for higher offers when binding bids are submitted at a still-unspecified date within January.