Asset utilization runs into cabinet problems

The Public Holdings Company (EDIS), a subsidiary of the Hellenic Holdings and Properties Company SA (the new hyperfund for state asset utilization), will receive the country’s small regional airports and regional ports, the inner cabinet decided on Monday. However, no decision was reached on any major issues as the ministers will meet again once Public Power Corporation’s fate is decided.

Monday’s meeting was supposed to approve the transfer of assets to the hyperfund and the ratification of state sell-off fund TAIPED’s Asset Development Plan. However, there were disagreements on both issues, with the rift within the government on PPC looking nowhere near being patched up. The bone of contention is the PPC stake to be transferred to the hyperfund.

PPC is not the only problem though. There is also Athens International Airport, with Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis opposing the transfer of 25 percent of its shares to EDIS. This is despite the government’s clear intention to strengthen the new hyperfund and destabilize TAIPED by removing from the latter some state stakes conceded to it and transferring them to the new fund as agreed since 2015 with the country’s creditors.