Having failed to woo Gazprom, Greece is to sell a 66 percent share in DESFA, a fully owned subsidiary of state-run natural gas company DEPA, for €400 million to Azeri state-owned SOCAR.
Greece will receive approximately €188m from the sale, which it
will use to pay off its massive debts.
"The privatization agency is very pleased, it's basically a
done deal," an anonymous official told Reuters, who also
confirmed Greek authorities were pleased with the price.
“The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, may formally
approve the sale as soon as Thursday at its next board
meeting,” the source said.
SOCAR was the sole bidder for DESFA after Russian energy company Sintez and Greek-Czech
PPF-Terna both dropped out of bidding earlier this month.
The Greek privatization agency announced it had only received the
Azezi bid for DEFSA, and zero bids for DEPA.
The sale of DEPA hit a snag when Russian gas giant Gazprom
backed out of negotiations. Now Greece is selling the natural gas
grid operator to Azerbaijan, which is experiencing slowed oil
output.
Greece has been forced to dismantle and privatize part of its
state gas monopoly in order to meet its austerity targets under
the international bailout plan.
Backed by the IMF, Greece is amidst an almost $320 billion
state-asset sales program. Greece’s progress on raising 2.3
billion euro from the sale of state holdings this year is
‘extremely disappointing’ according to the IMF.
The deal is timely for Azerbaijan, which is experiencing slowed
oil output, already down 2.2 percent this year, according to
state website data. From January to May, Azerbaijan only pumped
18.1 million metric tons of crude oil.
For comparison, Russia pumps nearly 45 million metric tons of oil per day.
Gazprom was expected to offer roughly $1.2 billion (€900m) for a
controlling stake in Greece state-owned company DEPA, following
months of negotiations and three personal visits by chairman
Aleksey Miller, but in the end the company decided not to go
through with the bid, stating a ‘conflict of interest’ and
concern the company's position would deteriorate.
Athens expects the DESFA sale to increase the probability that
the Trans-Adriatic pipeline becomes a reality and pumps oil from
the Caspian Sea to Western Europe.