Page 14 - Euroil Week 12 2020

EurOil POLICY EurOil
Greece closes first phase of tender for gas sales arm
GREECE
Caption Caption Caption Caption Caption Caption Caption Caption
GREECE’S state privatisation agency TAIPED has closed the first phase of a tender for the sale of a 65% interest in the country’s dominant gas supplier DEPA Commercial, collecting nine, non-binding offers.
Among the investors that submitted expres- sions of interest (EoI) in the company were Vitol Holding, Shell Gas, Power Globe, Mytilinaios, MET Holding, Gek Terna and C.G. Gas. Joint bids were also received from Hellenic Petroleum partnering with Edison International, and Motor Oil Hellas Corinth Refineries teaming up with PPC.
TAIPED’s advisors will now review the results and provide recommendations to the agency’s board on which candidates should pass through to the second round of the tender, which will involve binding offers.
DEPA is responsible for the bulk of Greece’s gas imports and is also its main gas supplier, with more than 350,000 retail customers in the Athens area. The government has committed to privatising the company and other energy assets under the terms of its final bailout agree- ment with the EU and the International Mon- etary Fund (IMF).
Greece’s parliament passed legislation late last year to break up DEFA into its different functions, in order to open up the Greek gas market to competition and make the search for investors easier. TAIPED invited EoIs for DEPA Commercial, which manages gas wholesale and retail operations, in January and the deadline for submissions passed on March 6. The remaining 35% interest in the company is held by Hellenic Petroleum, Greece’s biggest refiner, which has agreed to sell its share to the winning bidder, if its own offer is not accepted.
TAIPED also collected nine EoIs last month for DEPA Infrastructure, which handles Greece’s gas distribution network. DEPA Infrastructure Projects, which operates cross-border infra- structure developments such as the proposed East Med gas pipeline project and a transmission link under construction with Bulgaria, is also due to be spun off, but will remain in state hands.
Greece launched the sales of DEPA and its gas transmission grid operator DESFA back in 2012, but struggled for years to find investors. DESFA was eventually sold to a consortium of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagas and Belgium’s Fluxys in late 2018. ™
P14
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 12 26•March•2020