A contract worth 45 million euros to sell-off 100 percent in the state-run rail operator's shares to Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane SpA was finalized on Wednesday, the privatization fund (TAIPED) announced.
The sale, via an international tender, was a memorandum-mandated privatization that the current leftist Greek government was obliged to implement, as part of the third memorandum.
The sale of Trainose to the Italian operator had been delayed by a pending Court of Audit review, which finally materialized this week.
According to the previous head of TAIPED on Tuesday, current Deputy Economy Minister Stergios Pitsiorlas, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane is also interested in bidding for the rolling stock maintenance company. Another international tender for the latter expires on Jan. 30, 2017, after the previous process was declared null and void.
The development marks a much-needed success for the previously anti-bailout leftist SYRIZA government, given that without the privatization the rail operator would have been obliged to return nearly 700 million euros in previous state subsidies to the European Union, i.e. its complete closure.
