ELPE bidding deadline in sale offering 50.1% set for March 29

Two bidding teams participating in a tender offering a 50.1 percent stake in ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) have been set a March 29 deadline for binding bids, the state privatization fund TAIPED, staging the sale, has decided. All candidates have been informed.

Glencore, an early qualifier, has been joined by US firm Carlyle, while Vitol, the other early contestant, has formed an alliance with Algeria’s Sonatrach for the ELPE tender.

Much work was needed to finalize this privatization’s sale and purchase (SPA) and shareholder (SHA) agreements.

Also, preceding ELPE sale deadlines needed to be stretched to allow the new entries, Carlyle and Sonatrach, to prepare, officials have noted.

ELPE’s bourse value at the end of yesterday’s trading session was 2.53 billion euros. The company’s share has gained 5.3 percent over the past month.

The European Commission, part of the troika, wants the ELPE privatization to be completed by the year’s half-way mark. In a recent report, Brussels expressed concern over the limited field of final-round qualifiers.