Greece to conclude power grid spin-off by June

Greece will conclude the spin-off of power grid operator ADMIE by mid-June, meeting a key term of its third international bailout, ADMIE’s chief executive said on Thursday.

Athens and its EU/IMF lenders had agreed that 24 percent of ADMIE, owned by state-controlled utility Public Power Corporation, would be sold this year to China’s State Grid Corporation and a further 25 percent to a Greek state holding company.

“Everything will be wrapped up within the first 15 days of June,” ADMIE CEO Yannis Kabouris told Reuters on the sidelines of an Athens energy conference.

The sale is part of Greece’s slow-moving privatization drive and efforts to open up the country’s energy market. Kabouris said that State Grid’s participation would also help ADMIE to implement a 2-billion-euro 10-year investment plan, which includes connecting the island of Crete to mainland Greece via undersea cables by 2023.

“The strategic investor is a very big company with huge financial caliber that will bring know-how for state-of-the-art technology,” Kabouris said.

[Reuters]