Improved offers for DESFA tabled
State sell-off fund TAIPED, in cooperation with Hellenic Petroleum, is expected on Friday to open the new and improved binding offers for a 66 percent stake in gas grid operator DESFA.
The two investment consortiums submitted their increased bids on Wednesday and TAIPED sources unofficially confirmed information that the price of the privatization project will exceed the 400 million euros agreed in the previous process, involving Azeri state company Socar.
Unless a serious problem emerges, joint sellers TAIPED and Hellenic Petroleum may ask the preferred bidder for a further increase in their offer as part of efforts to maximize revenues, sources close to the process tell Kathimerini.
The original binding bids by the consortium of Italy’s Snam with Belgium’s Fluxys and Spain’s Enagas Internacional, and by the consortium of Spain’s Reganosa with Romania’s Transgaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, are said to have been between 400 and 450 million euros.
TAIPED had asked for the improved bids when the original ones – submitted on February 16 – were unsealed on March 29. TAIPED is conceding its 31 percent stake in the company, while Hellenic Petroleum is giving up another 35 percent.
