A consortium comprised of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagás Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys has been nominated as the preferred investor for the acquisition of a 66 percent stake of DESFA, Greece’s natural gas grid operator, TAIPED, the state privatization fund announced today.

The fund’s board has unanimously accepted an improved financial offer made by the consortium worth 535 million euros for DESFA’s 66 percent – 31 percent from the privatization fund and 35 percent from ELPE, Hellenic Petroluem, it announced.

The board of directors of ELPE has also accepted the aforementioned offer, expected to be endorsed in due at an extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting.

The file of the tender process will be submitted to the Court of Audit for a pre-contractual audit and the relevant transaction documents will be prepared after a court approval. The completion of the transaction is conditional to the competent authorities’ approvals.

Alantra Greece Corporate Advisors S.A. and Alpha Bank S.A. acted as financial advisors for TAIPED and Koutalidis Law Firm, Clifford Chance LLP and Holman Fenwick Willan LLP as legal advisors.