Siemens expresses an interest in buying Greece’s ROSCO
Siemens is a possible bidder to buy a Greek rolling stock operating company, a source close to the talks said on Monday, making it the first major German company to take an interest in the country’s asset sales program.
Greece’s privatizations agency TAIPED said three companies had submitted expressions of interest to buy a 100 percent stake in ROSCO, the Hellenic Company for Rolling Stock Maintenance.
The other two potential bidders were French power and transport engineering firm Alstom together with Damco Energy, and Greek building group GEK Terna in cooperation with Russian Railways RZD, the official said, on condition of anonymity.
Selling state assets is a central condition of Greece’s multi-billion foreign bailout.
Germany is Greece’s biggest creditor under its 240-billion-euro bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund but German companies have shown little interest in snapping up Greek assets.
Siemens was embroiled in a bribery row in Greece over allegations that managers of its Greek subsidiary were involved in illegal party financing and bribery payments to secure government contracts, some of them related to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
[Reuters]
