Italian company sole bidder for privatization of Greek railways

Italy's state-owned company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A was the sole candidate to submit an offer for the privatization of Greek railways operator TrainOSE, Greece's privatization fund announced on Wednesday.

"The procedure for the submission of binding offers for the sale of 100 percent stake in TrainOSE SA. and EESSTY SA. ("ROSCO"), the rolling stock maintenance company, was completed today," the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) said in a statement.

Despite initial expression of interest by the Russian railway company RZD, the second TrainOSE international tender in a year closed with one bidder.

HRADF had annulled the first tender although more expressions of interest had been submitted "in order to attract bigger interest by investors," according to an official statement at the time.

The fund's board of directors will convene to consider the next steps, as no binding offers were submitted for ROSCO.

Greece intends to raise at least 2.5 billion euros (2.77 billion U.S. dollars) from its privatization program this year as part of efforts to restore the growth of the ailing Greek economy.

The completion of the sale of the majority stake in Piraeus Port to China's COSCO Shipping this summer following a similar international tender is regarded as a landmark in the development of Greece's largest port.

Under the deal approved by the Greek parliament last week, a few hours before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' official visit to China which ended on Wednesday, the Chinese investor will pay 368.5 million euros now and invest more over the next decades in infrastructure at the port. Endit