Debt-laden Greece finds no buyers in ‘fire sale’ of national assets

Greece puts €50bn of national assets on sale in hotel ballroom but private equity firms are not interested While Greece erupted in protest again yesterday, representatives of the country’s government were at Claridge’s hotel trying to drum up international investors’ interest in a “fire sale” of its national assets. Up for sale are 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, a couple of energy companies, banks, defence groups, thousands of acres of land for development, casinos and Greece’s national lottery. George Christodoulakis, Greece’s special secretary for asset restructuring and privatisations, said the sell-off would raise €50bn (£44bn) to help pay back the country’s €110bn bailout debt . The private equity bosses gathered in the hotel’s ballroom for the parade of Greece’s national treasures showed little interest in buying anything. Nikos Stathopoulous, managing partner of BC Partners, which has invested more than €3.5bn in Greece, said investors are put off by bureaucracy, strong unions, corruption and a lack of transparency. “Even in the good times Greece is not a country that attracts investment. Foreign investors don’t want to invest in a country where there is no flexibility in hiring and firing people,” he said. “You don’t want to invest in a country in which you wake up and a new law has been passed which totally undermines and destroys the value of the investment you’ve just made.” Stathopoulous said investors were finding it very hard to assess the risk of investing into Greece, which means assets “will be priced at lower than they are worth, lower than the Greek government, and even the European Union, expects”. Aref Lahham, managing director and founding partner of Orion Capital Managers, said most private equity firms would not buy Greek assets because the “risks are too high”. He added: “I think people will not buy those assets, that is the sad truth.” Lahham said more than half of the assets up for sale comprises land for commercial or residential development, which is unattractive because of the difficulty of securing financing to build in Greece. His firm was attracted by the potential of Greek tourism but legislation made it difficult for foreign companies to develop the country’s islands and beaches. “Greece is a fantastic tourism destination with very undeveloped infrastructure. There isn’t a Four Seasons or a Shangri-La or a Peninsula or any of the major hotel chains in Greece,” he said. “It’s strange, they would love to be there and we would love to build it for them, but somehow regulations don’t allow you to do so.” Lahham said Greece’s ambition to sell €15bn of assets by 2012 and the full €50bn by 2015 meant there was not enough time to carry out due diligence properly. “I simply do not believe the timescale. I’m afraid it is not going to happen within times – I’m afraid it is a fire sale.” Christodoulakis denied that the hastily arranged sell-off was a fire sale, preferring to describe it as a “professionally managed privatisation plan”. “We may sell them cheaper than [during normal conditions] but we will devote the funds to buying back debt, that means we are going to buy it back when it is cheaper.” When a fellow Greek interrupted to say the sell-off was “destroying our country”, Christodoulakis said there was “no point crying over spilt milk” and told his countryman to “try and be optimistic”. European debt crisis European banks Greece Europe Rupert Neate guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.