Chinese firm buys Greece’s biggest port
A major Chinese shipping firm has signed a deal with Greece to purchase the majority of stakes in the country’s biggest port – the Port of Piraeus.
The deal has allowed China’s shipping company China Cosco Holding to obtain a stake of 67% in the port.
The transaction is the second major privatization for the bailed out country since late last year.
Cosco’s €368.5 million ($419.7 million) offer was approved in January by Greece’s left-wing government, which initially opposed the privatization, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The agreement was signed by the Chairman of Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which handles state asset sales, Stergios Pitsiorlas, and Cosco’s CFO Feng Jinhua, in the presence of Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, and the Chairman of China COSCO Shipping Company Limited, Mr. Xu Lirong.
The total value of the deal is worth some €1.5 billion, including additional investment, as well as revenue of €410 million, dividends and interest Greece is expecting to collect under the 36-year concession deal, the Wall Street Journal added.
The Chinese company already operates two container terminals in Piraeus under a 35-year concession it acquired in 2009.
Piraeus, a few miles south of the Greek capital, is the de facto home of the country’s giant shipping industry and is one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean. Cosco uses Piraeus as a transshipment hub for Asian exports to Europe arriving on container vessels from China, given its proximity to the Suez Canal.
Cosco executives and other Chinese officials have said they want to develop the port into a logistics center that will move goods, mostly via rail, to Eastern Europe.
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