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CHINA's
Cosco Group has expressed interest in purchasing
most of the 67 per cent stake in the Greek
Port of Piraeus (OLP) in competition with
five others bidders in an exercise to conclude
by the end of the year.
Five
bids have come in from Ports America, Maersk
unit APM Terminals, private equity firm
Cartesian Capital Group, Manila's ICTS and
investment company Utilico Emerging Markets
Limited.
Cosco
Pacific upgraded two of the port's piers
five years ago. It has since pledged another
EUR230 million (US$313.8 million) for capacity
expansion over seven years in return for
exemption from fees paid to state-owned
OLP port.
Piraeus
has continued to grow volumes 15 per cent
to 3.1 million TEU in 2013, increasing net
profit 12 per cent to EUR8 million during
this fiscal year.
As
a matter of fact, Cosco Pacific's Greek
port of Piraeus has become the Mediterranean's
third biggest container port in 2013, reported
Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA),
Italy's national news agency.
Piraeus
Container Terminal (SEP) handled 2.52 TEU
at Terminals II and III last year, against
an estimated 2.4 million TEU, said the report.
Added
to the 644,000 containers handled at Terminal
I, operated by the state-owned Piraeus Port
Authority (OLP), Greece's biggest port handled
a total of 3.16 million TEU, a year-on-year
increase of 20 per cent on top of 2012 year-on-year
increase of 77 per cent. OLP gained three
per cent in 2013 year on year.
Once
Cosco's new investment at the western section
of Terminal III is complete, the capacity
of the whole of Piraeus port complex will
rise from 4.2 million TEU to 6.2 million
TEU a year, said the report.
In
2012, Piraeus ranked fourth in container
volume, with Valencia in first place, handling
4.46 million TEU and Algeciras in second
while Turkey's Ambarli (Istanbul) ranked
third.
While
much Suez Asian cargo goes to northern Europe
where road and rail links are numerous and
strong, railway links are superior through
Piraeus to Central Europe, saving six days
of transit, said the ANSA report.
This
is taking place during a period when traffic
at Northern Europe's three biggest ports
- Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp - is on
the wane, said the report.
Piraeus
also boasts a ro-ro terminal, which is already
showing major growth, as the Mediterranean
is a key European gateway for Japanese,
South Korean and Indian cars.
For
Greece, the asset sale of the state-owned
port adds to a trend of picking Chinese-backed
bids following its latest development of
a prime waterfront property at the former
Athens airport Hellenikon, said Greece's
privatisation agency.
The
sale will contribute to Greece's EUR240
billion bail-out which has been made possible
by foreign investment from China, Russia,
US and the EU. Since the first EU/IMF bailout
mid-2010, it has signed deals worth EUR4.9
billion but has raised only EUR2.7 million.
By
privatisation of the country's railway operator
TRAINOSE, rolling stock company ROSCO and
some regional airports, among other assets,
it aims to raise revenues of EUR1.5 billion.
It has put up its second biggest port of
Thessaloniki for sale with a deadline of
June 5 for non-binding bids.
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