The Greek government has launched the sale of a 65% stake in DEPA Commercial, the wholesale and retail businesses of the state-owned gas company DEPA. Interested investors will have until 6 March 2020 to submit a bid and will have an option to acquire the remaining 35% stake held by Hellenic Petroleum, the largest oil refiner in Greece.
The State has failed several times to privatise DEPA: a first time in 2003 (Gas Natural withdrew its offer due to a lack of guarantees on the future organisation of the Greek gas market) and a second time in 2013 (Gazprom retired its €900m bid). Under the latest bailout agreement that expired in 2018, Greece agreed to privatise DEPA to open up the gas market and decided to split the company into DEPA Infrastructure for gas distribution to end consumers and DEPA Commercial for wholesale and retail activities (over 350,000 retail customers). In 2019, Greece launched the privatisation of a 100% stake in DEPA Infrastructure; bids should be submitted by 14 February 2020.
In 2018, the Greek privatization agency sold a 66% stake in the gas transmission network operator DESFA for €535m to a consortium comprising the Italian gas transmission system operator (TSO) Snam (60%) and its Spanish and Belgian counterparts Enagas (20%) and Fluxys (20%).
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