Hyperfund to focus on making state corporations more efficient

The strategic plan of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (EESYP) shifts its emphasis to the utilization of the state’s real estate assets and to the holdings in state corporations recently conceded to EESYP, the so-called “privatizations hyperfund.”

The five-year plan (2018-22) that the Finance Ministry and EESYP presented on Tuesday aims at the optimum utilization of state assets according to the terms and rules that the country’s creditors have set.

It contains a provisional account of the corporation’s assets, the challenges and opportunities they represent and certain measures and objectives that will immediately improve their operation, efficiency and value. It also proposes measures to apply in the longer term so as to maximize the value of the hyperfund’s assets.

The plan specifically concerns the operation and efficiency of the Public Properties Company (ETAD), the Athens Urban Transport Organization (OASA), Hellenic Post (ELTA), Helexpo, as well as small state entities such as Hellenic Saltworks, the Central Markets and Fisheries Organization (OKAA) and the Central Market of Thessaloniki (KATH), among others.

It does not concern some of the most prominent assets of the hyperfund, namely the subsidiaries of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) and the privatizations fund (TAIPED), or the minority holdings of EESYP, such as that in Athens International Airport.

It includes mainly qualitative and not quantitative targets, as the latter are expected to be reflected in the asset-specific business plans, the next step in the operation of the hyperfund. The fund’s stated objective is the coordinated utilization of public properties with transparency and integrity.

“It is the first significant landmark and a stable basis for the organized and realistic operation of public corporations. We believe we can make our targets and we know we have to work hard and methodically so as to face the challenge of changing,” commented EESYP chief executive officer, Rania Aikaterinari. She argued that the hyperfund has examined the potential of the country and its enterprises and aims to create a “modern and sustainable model of growth and corporate governance toward the utilization of the national wealth and its comparative advantages.”