Privatization

The government is beginning to seek out state properties that have not been put under the jurisdiction of the new privatizations hyperfund.

''Bulgaria may fail to achieve even the forecast economic growth of around 3% in 2018'', said the economist Krasen Stanchev, according to FOCUS Radio's Good Morning Bulgaria.

The privatisation of state shares is banned, announced the Bulgarian Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov in the Council of Ministers today, reported bTV.

"All started procedures for the privatisation of state shares will be stopped immediatly", said the chosen from the "United Patriots" Karanikolov.

State sell-off fund TAIPED will retain control of 10 regional ports of international interest, with the aim of their privatization or other forms of utilization, according to the draft update of the bailout agreement.

Canada-based PSP International is asking, in a quite discreet fashion, for the process to extend the agreement for the operation of the Athens International Airport to continue, after having stalled for a lengthy period.

Constant contradictions from the government in regard to its position on investments and privatizations are taking a heavy toll on the economy and doing the country a lot of harm.

Greece is seeking a financial adviser for the sale of a 5 percent stake in its biggest telecoms operator OTE, its privatization agency (TAIPED) said on Thursday.

The sale is a condition of Greece's international bailout.

OTE, a former national monopoly, is now 40 percent owned and managed by Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

[Reuters]

The government is keen to keep a tight grip on state corporations, which is why the transfer of such companies to the new hyperfund for state asset utilization, officially titled Hellenic Holdings and Properties Company SA, has been allowed to drag on. The transfers are a part of the framework of the second review of the third Greek bailout program.

The Serbian government has decided to cancel the privatization of Galenika pharmaceuticals.

Beta is reporting, citing the government, that the decision came at the request of a committee which negotiated the sale with the Belgrade-based company's only bidder - the British-Russian consortium Frontier Pharma-Petrovax.

The privatization of the port of Piraeus was one of several major investment projects in Greece that was fiercely battled by opponents.