The European Commission (EC) has approved the acquisition of a 66% stake in the Greek state-owned gas transmission network operator (TSO) DESFA by a consortium including the Italian gas TSO Snam (60%) and its Spanish and Belgian counterparts Enagás (20%) and Fluxys (20%). The acquisition was approved under the European Union (EU) merger regulation and the Commission estimates that it would not raise any competition concerns.
The sale fits into Greece's €86bn international bailout plan. In 2016, HRADF (Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, the Greek privatization agency) and the oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum agreed to sell their DESFA stake to Azerbaijan's state-held company SOCAR for €400m but the deal collapsed in November 2016, after the government raised DESFA's gas tariffs by a lower amount than SOCAR had expected and SOCAR asked in turn for a lower acquisition price. Later on, the consortium including Snam submitted a €535m bid to HRADF which accepted it in April 2018.