Greece confirms plan to buy majority stake in power grid operator

Greece confirmed on Wednesday that it will acquire a 51 percent stake in the country's power grid operator ADMIE as part of a plan to spin it off from dominant power utility PPC agreed with its foreign lenders.

Under the plan, rather than fully privatising the firm, Greece will also sell 20 percent to an international transmission operator and 29 percent through the Athens Stock Exchange, the energy ministry said.

Officials had told Reuters that Greece and the EU/IMF had agreed on the plan last week as part of a second set of reforms under its bailout.

ADMIE is currently fully-owned by PPC. The ministry said the firm will compensated through a combination of ADMIE'S annual core profit of up to 10 percent, and revenues from the sale of the 49 percent stake to private investors. [Reuters]