TAIPED

It appears that it's back to the drawing board for the DESFA privatization project after the failure of the agreement with Azeri company Socar for the the sale of the state's gas grid operator. The government is aiming to complete the entire procedure as soon as possible, and definitely within 2017.

The stake of 67 percent in Thessaloniki Port Authority will be immediately conceded in its entirety to the winning bidder of the tender, according to the draft contract forwarded to short-listed candidates.

The original plan had been for the concession of 51 percent at first and the remaining 16 percent at a later date.

Service on Greece's national and suburban (Proastiakos) railways was expected to be suspended Monday through Wednesday, as unions have called for continuous rolling strikes following a decision by the country's privatization fund, TAIPED, to accept a bid for the sale of a 100 percent stake in Greek railway operator Trainose.

The government said on Tuesday that it had met the "final condition" set by the country's creditors for the disbursement of a 7.5-billion-euro tranche of bailout money after announcing it will move ahead with the sale of Athens's former international airport at Elliniko.

Railway properties firm Gaiaose is planning to concede three more freight centers via tender procedures in the next 12 months, besides the Thriasio center, which will see its tender completed by the end of June if the firm's efforts are successful.

Three out of the eight parties interested in purchasing a majority stake in Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTH) have dropped out of the race, as only five of the original candidates have responded to a new invitation for expressions of interest by state privatization fund TAIPED.

The Greek government on Aug. 18 approved a 1.23 billion euro ($1.36 billion) deal for Germany's Fraport-Slentel consortium to run 14 regional airports, publishing the decision in its official gazette.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unconditional surrender of Greece to Berlin and Brussels will go down as one of the most curious U-turns in history. It’s hard to fathom how a leftist government that won elections on January 25 while campaigning to end austerity could end up passing one of the most neo-liberal programs ever imposed on Greece.

Greece's leftist government has said that future proceeds from privatizations would be diverted to pension funds instead of debt repayment ? a move the country's creditors are likely to oppose.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

On Wednesday, just days after asking the top executives of sell-off fund TAIPED to quit their posts, Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani surprisingly called on them to stay on until further notice and to postpone any significant decisions on privatizations for at least two to three weeks.