By F. Zois
[email protected]
The leadership of Greece's privatization agency, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), will travel to Brussels next week as part of efforts to overcome the Commission's bureaucratic hurdles regarding an extension to the concession for the Athens International Airport (AIA).
HRADF and the management of AIA agreed to a 20-year extension of the concession last September, which would extend the current management to 2046.
The deal is worth 600 million euros (including VAT), with the net benefit for the privatization fund being 483.87 million euros.
Nevertheless, the extension contract has remained stalled in the EU's "cogwheels" for the past four months, with another four to five months still necessary for the Union's competition and transports directorate to approve the deal.
Beyond the "hole" left in the agency's revenues ledger, the delay has also bumped back the beginning of a process to sell-off 30 percent of the shares held by HRADF in the airport's holding company. The latter prospect was set to begin in March, although delayed approval for the concession extension has affected the sale of the shares.
