Dolphin Capital Investors set to bid for Astir Palace resort, source says
Dolphin Capital Investors Ltd. (DCI) plans to bid for the Astir Palace resort in Athens in a deal that would mark the first outright sale of a property in the country since the government started its asset disposal program in 2011, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Dolphin, a developer of holiday resorts in southeast Europe, will make an offer for the 120,000 square-meter (1.3 million square-foot) complex by March 19, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the bid hasn’t been formally submitted. The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands and its shares are traded in London.
Greece is striving to attract foreign investment as the economy faces its sixth straight year of contraction and an unemployment rate that reached 27 percent in November. In 1993 and 2009, Astir Palace in Athens hosted the Bilderberg conference, an invitation-only annual gathering of European and American business and political leaders named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting took place in 1954.
The National Bank of Greece SA and the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which own the property, put out an international public tender on Jan. 16 as part of the government’s 50 billion-euro ($67 billion) asset disposal program. The complex includes three hotels, private beaches and 58 bungalows on the Vouliagmeni peninsula 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Venizelos International Airport.
A spokesman for Dolphin declined to comment on the matter. The National Bank of Greece (TELL) and the asset fund didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
[Bloomberg]
