Feature: Emblematic Athens Hilton hotel on sale, hundreds of bargains across Greece

The Athens Hilton, an emblematic hotel in Greece's capital for decades, was put on sale this week as the crown jewel among hundreds of bargains in the hotel sector across the country.

Greek lender Alpha Bank formally launched on Wednesday the procedure for the sale of the majority stake (97.3 percent) in its subsidiary Ionian Hotels Enterprise, current manager of the Athens Hilton.

Expressions of interest may be submitted by March 11, according to an Alpha Bank press release.

Citigroup has been appointed as sales advisor for the process which "aims at attracting high-quality investors with a vision of further strengthening the hotel's potential for offering world class hospitality services," the statement said.

Although no starting price was set, local financial analysts told Xinhua, that Alpha Bank was expected to examine offers exceeding 110 million euros (about 122 million U.S. dollars).

It is not the first time that the five-star hotel is put on sale. Two years ago Greek-American entrepreneur and former candidate Mayor of New York John Katsimatidis made an offer of about 100 million euros, according to reports, but was rejected as being too low.

According to local analysts, a satisfactory binding offer at the moment may stand at about 170 million euros.

Located in the centre of the city, close to Syntagma square, the parliament, key tourist attractions and with a view to the Acropolis, the Athens Hilton was inaugurated on April 20, 1963 by Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton hotels chain, as "the most beautiful Hilton hotel in the world."

With financing from then Ionian Bank the team of Greek architects gave Athens an unprecedented design combining modern elements with references to ancient Greece.

Over the next decades the landmark hotel's history was interlinked with the flourishing of the Greek tourism industry.

Guests at the Athens Hilton have included numerous heads of states and international famous artists and celebrities.

In recent months it has become the unofficial meeting place for talks between Greek government officials and visiting envoys of Greece's international lenders on the progress of bailout commitments.

According to local analysts, the sale of the hotel by the Greek lender is part of Alpha Bank's wider campaign to further boost its capital base after the third recapitalization of Greece's banking system in three years in late 2015 under the bailout agreement.

The Athens Hilton is not the sole interesting bargain in the hotel sector in Greece at the moment.

From the start of 2016 there are about 500 ads on various specialized websites for the sales of hotels across the country, as despite the record arrivals from abroad, in particular smaller hotel units are facing sustainability problems due to the seven year debt crisis, according to a survey carried out recently by Greek "Kathimerini" (daily) newspaper.

The number accounts to about five percent of hotel units nationwide.

Foreign investors can also explore opportunities via the Greek privatization fund HRADF which oversees the sales of the Greek state's real estate properties among other assets. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Endit