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Greek railway assets may be sold to Russia
Published: Tue, 2013-06-18 09:03-
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Interest in strategic industrial assets
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has instructed the national government to participate in the privatization of Greek strategic industrial assets, among which is the Thessaloniki sea port, the country’s rail carrier TrainOSE, as well as a local repair company Rosco.
RZD has already asked for state permission to buy these assets, as part of Russia’s strategic interests in Europe. The starting price of the three companies is more than €140 million.
There is a possibility that the funds for the deal may be provided by the Russian government, while another option may involve the participation of another investor and in particular French Railways.
If the deal goes ahead, RZD will have a unique opportunity to combine rail and port projects in Greece with the currently implemented infrastructure projects in Serbia, and better use the experience of a recently acquired GEFCO logistics company for the increase of traffic in the EU transport corridor.
At the same time, according to Vladimir Yakunin, head of RZD, an interest to Greek assets has also been expressed by some other potential investors from China, France and the Arab states.
Yakunin expects state support in funding the transaction, as privatization of the Greek transport assets may be part of Russia’s state interests appropriate to the provision of public funding."
However, according to Yakunin, there is also a possibility that RZD may participate in the auction in the consortium with one of the largest Greek infrastructure companies, as well as with the France Railways.
RZD has been pretending to the acquistion of Greek transport assets since the beginning of last year. In March of this year Yakunin announced that "the company can not implement such projects without the permision of the Russian government."
Av Eugene Gerden
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