Court of Auditors

Work on Crete-Athens grid link nears launch after approvals

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The Court of Auditors has approved contracts offered to winning bidders for installation of the Crete-Athens grid interconnection’s four cable segments, enabling the signing of contracts for the one billion-euro project’s biggest stage, budgeted at 615 million euros, probably within the month, energypress sources have informed. Work will then be able to commence.

Prysmian, Nexans and Hellenic Cables-NKT were awarded contracts for the project’s four cable segments. Prysmian secured two of these four contracts.

On another front, the Court of Auditors is expected to approve a contract for the project’s other key stage, the design, supply and installation of two converters and a substation, in June, according to sources.

Siemens – Terna, a member of the GEK TERNA group, submitted an improved bid of 370 million euros late last month to be awarded this contract by power grid operator IPTO’s fully-owned subsidiary Ariadne Interconnection, the project promoter.

The Court of Auditors’ approval of contracts for the project’s four cable segments follows a recent decision by the environment and energy ministry endorsing the 1,000-MW project’s environmental terms.

EU funding for the project through the NSRF (2014 – 2020) is expected to be approved within the next week to ten days, according to reliable sources. This would subsequently also offer IPTO access to bank financing.

RAE starts DESFA sale inspection process with auditor still at work

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A dossier submitted by the winning bidding team of an international tender offering a 66 percent stake of DESFA, Greece’s natural gas grid operator, to the Court of Auditors may still be undergoing inspection but RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, has already begun preliminary work concerning its own certification for the new owners.

RAE will examine the winning team’s portfolio for any complications, but the certification process should be swift as the investment team is comprised entirely of EU firms – Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagás Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys. Authorities are already confident all three meet the sale’s requirements.

The certification process was more complicated in the recent sale of a 24 percent of IPTO, the power grid operator, to China’s SGCC, as the incoming strategic investor was a non-EU firm.

As soon as the Court of Auditors has completed its work, the investment trio’s dossier will be transferred to RAE for inspection. It will also be forwarded to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition for a concurrent approval procedure, the aim being to complete the sale’s overall inspection process as swiftly as possible.

Snam officials were in Athens last week for a first-hand update on the progress being made. Officials of the Italian enterprise met with  TAIPED (state privatization fund) and other authorities involved in the sale’s ownership transfer process.

An important first step was made last month when shareholders at ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) approved the petroleum firm’s 35 percent sale of the overall 66 percent DESFA stake offered to investors through the international tender. The privatization fund contributed the other 31 percent of DESFA on behalf of the Greek State.

The signing of a share purchase agreement (SPA) will represent the next step once the Court of Auditors, RAE and the Directorate General for Competition in Brussels have completed their inspections.

TAIPED and the winning investment team are then expected to sign a finalized sale agreement for the transfer of DESFA’s 66 percent to the buying trio for a price of 535 million euros.

The deal’s finalization is expected by the end of December. Until then, the current DESFA board is not permitted to maintain any contact with the new buyers for provision of any information concerning the Greek natural gas grid operator.

 

 

 

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DESFA buyers in Athens for RAE, TAIPED meetings

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Officials representing Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagás Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys, the three members of the winning consortium in an international tender offering a 66 percent stake of DESFA, the natural gas grid operator, are expected in Athens this week for meetings with TAIPED, the state privatization fund, and RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, concerning the procedure leading to the agreement’s finalization.

The meeting between the consortium officials and RAE will focus on the authority’s certification of DESFA, based on the operator’s new ownership. RAE will inspect the winning bidder’s portfolio for any complications, which should be a swift procedure as the investment team is comprised entirely of EU firms.

The certification process was more complicated in the recent sale of a 24 percent of IPTO, the power grid operator, to China’s SGCC, as the incoming strategic investor was a non-EU firm.

Dossiers of the DESFA sale will then need to be submitted to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition and Directorate General for Energy for approval. The former will need to endorse the sale and the latter must provide certification.

Besides the RAE meeting, the winning consortium’s representatives will, during their visit this week, also submit a DESFA acquisition dossier to Greece’s Court of Auditors. This is expected by tomorrow, following translations, into Greek, of all the related documents. The Court of Auditors is expected to offer its approval in June or July.

These steps represent part of the road map leading to DESFA’s share purchase agreement (SPA), expected by the end of December.

If the current steps are successfully completed, then TAIPED and the investors will sign an agreement for a transfer of DESFA’s 66 percent to the Snam-Enagás-Fluxys consortium for a sum of 535 million euros.

Of this amount, the privatization fund, selling 31 percent of DESFA on behalf of the Greek State will receive 251.3 million euros while ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), holding a 35 percent stake of DESFA, stands to receive 283.7 million euros.