Piraeus Bank

DEPA Commercial privatization plan postponed until 2024-25

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Gas company DEPA Commercial’s privatization plan has been postponed until its business plan, which includes an expansion strategy, begin reaping rewards, effectively meaning that no further steps concerning the company’s sale should be  expected before late 2024 or early 2025, Greek privatization fund TAIPED appears to have decided.

Besides taking into consideration the potential of a bigger and broader business plan, TAIPED is also weighing in the impact on its plan to sell its 65 percent stake of DEPA Commercial of a long-running legal dispute between the company and fertilizer industry ELFE. The former is seeking unpaid amounts and the latter claims it has been overcharged for gas supply.

This dispute appears set to enter yet another chapter that is most likely to add between one and two years of legal battle following a decision by the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, to revert the case to an Athens Appeals Court for retrial.

DEPA Commercial’s expansion policy, which includes a 20 percent stake in the prospective Alexandroupoli FSRU in northeastern Greece as well as electricity production in the same region, promises to greatly broaden its business interests, until recently focused on gas trading activity.

TAIPED’s sale of its 65 percent stake in DEPA Commercial at this stage would deprive the Greek State of benefits in the making, industry experts have noted.

TAIPED has reportedly commissioned Piraeus Bank to reevaluate DEPA Commercial’s broadened business plan and determine when, and to what extent, it should begin maturing and generating added value.

GEK-TERNA, Motor Oil secure €350m loan for Komotini CCGT, 65% ready

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GEK-TERNA and Motor Oil Hellas, co-developing a state-of-the-art, 877-MW combined cycle, gas-fueled power station in Komotini, northeastern Greece, have secured project financing worth a total of 325 million euros from Eurobank and Piraeus Bank, a sum expected to contribute decisively to the CCGT’s further development and completion.

Development of the project, Thermoilektriki Komotinis, is well over the half-way mark and about 60 to 65 percent completed, energypress has been informed. Its developers aim to commence trial runs late next year.

Virtually all of the main equipment to be installed at the CCGT has been received, while mechanical and electrical work is now in progress, along with the development of a substation and interconnection lines.

As previously reported by energypress, a Siemens HL-class gas turbine, the first to be used in Greece, was installed at the facility earlier this year. This cutting-edge piece of technology promises to offer energy efficiency reaching 64 percent.

PPC secures financial relief, cash injections worth €300m

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Power utility PPC is reinforcing its financial position for protection against challenges already brought about by the coronavirus crisis and ones not yet fully apparent.

The corporation’s board has approved moves worth 300 million euros, including restructuring of high-cost loans, in an effort to boost its liquidity.

Financial tools and alternative borrowing sources have once again become available to the corporation following its return to profit territory and growth prospects.

Investors and banks are expressing renewed faith in PPC, as was made clear yesterday by three decisions taken by the utility’s board promising to inject about 300 million euros into the company.

CEO Giorgos Stassis and his board approved a JP Morgan offer worth between 200 and 250 million euros for unpaid receivables by customers in the low and mid-voltage categories. This package of unpaid receivables totals 260 million euros and concerns amounts overdue for no more than 60 days. The financial services company is offering an interest rate of 3.5 percent over a three-year period. Bonds will be issued by PPC through an SPV.

Also, the country’s four main banks, National, Alpha, Eurobank and Piraeus, have accepted a request by PPC for a delay in the payments of two 25 million-euro installments, respectively due June 30 and December 31, for a one billion-euro, five-year bond issued in 2018. The systemic banks, showing faith in PPC, agreed to receive these payments when the bond matures in 2023.

In addition, PPC has further diversified its borrowing sources. The board approved an Optima Bank proposal for a 15 million-euro debenture loan with floating six-month interest.

 

Aktor Concessions increases its Attiki Odos stake with additional 6.5%

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Aktor Concessions, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Ellaktor group, has increased its stakes in Attiki Odos and Attika Diodia to 65.74 percent from 59.249 percent following respective 6.5 percent acquisitions in both for a total amount of 37.5 million euros, the company has announced in a statement.

Attiki Odos is the company which undertook, via a Concessions Agreement with the Greek State, the study, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the motorway of the same name, while Attika Diodia controls 80 percent of the company Attikes Diadromes, responsible for the operation and maintenance of the road.

Commenting on the acquisition, Anastassios Kallitsantsis, the CEO of Ellaktor, noted: “The increase of our participation in Attiki Odos. and in Attika Diodia is fully aligned with the new strategy of Ellaktor, which foresees that we maintain our leading position in concessions and through it we create long-term shareholder value. It is an investment with extremely important business, strategic and financial benefits for Ellaktor, both on a short-term as well as on mid-term level. Attiki Odos is the most representative footprint of our Group, since, on the one hand, it is a creation of our construction subsidiary Aktor and on the other hand, it is a distinctive concessions project of our subsidiary Aktor Concessions. Seventeen years after the inauguration of the first part of the road, Attiki Odos maintains intact its construction supremacy as well as its undeniable level of services provided, elements which constitute Attiki Odos as one of the top infrastructure projects in Greece, the most crucial road in Athens and the standard choice for the daily commutes of hundreds of thousands of drivers”.

The acquired 6.5% of the shares of Attiki Odos and Attika Diodia is the proportionate stake of Aktor Concessions out of a 9.88% total held by Piraeus Bank in both companies and for the sale of which Piraeus Bank organized an international tender. Following a relevant binding financial offer, Piraeus Bank – as obliged by the Shareholders Agreements of both companies – addressed the existing shareholders of Attiki Odos and Attika Diodia, who maintain a right of first refusal, and Aktor Concessions exercised this right.

Aktor Concessions is the largest Greek company in the sector of concessions and the first one to undertake concessions contracts in the ‘90s. The company has valuable technical expertise and wide experience in the whole spectrum of activities related to concessions, such as the study, funding, construction, exploitation, maintenance and operations. Furthermore, the company leverages significant strategic partnerships in concession projects with companies of global reach and status. The portfolio of Aktor Concessions includes the main motorways in Greece. The company owns the majority stake in Attiki Odos and in Moreas Motorway, while it also holds significant stakes in Olympia Odos, the Rio-Antirrio Bridge and the Aegean Motorway.

Attiki Odos is a modern motorway that extends along 70 km and crosses the Attica Prefecture, or wider Athens area, connecting 28 municipalities and facilitating millions of people. It is an urban motorway with two separate directional carriageways, each consisting of 3 lanes and an emergency lane. The suburban railway of Athens has been constructed in the central reservation of the motorway. Attiki Odos constitutes the backbone connecting the main means of transport and key infrastructures in the Attica region: motorways (connection with the National Road network), airports (connection with the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”), railways (connection with metro and suburban railway) and ports (access to the ports of Lavrion and Rafina).