TAIPED to make revenues target
Delays over the course of this year have proven beneficial to state privatization fund TAIPED, as its deal with Eurobank Properties and Pangaia for the sale and leaseback of 28 public buildings will bring as much as 261.31 million euros into state coffers, while a year earlier the revenues from those buildings would not have been any more than 120 million, according to fund officials.
The 28 buildings were split into two groups, with the first portfolio going to Pangaia, a National Bank subsidiary, for 115.5 million euros, while the second went to Eurobank Properties for 145.81 million euros.
The additional revenues for TAIPED were achieved through the agreement for a nominal return of the investment at 10 percent, against an actual return of 7 to 7.5 percent, and through the utilization procedure chosen for the 28 buildings. This will be the operational lease of the properties, whereby the investors undertake the costs of maintaining and insuring the buildings, rather than the usual financial lease, in which case those costs burden the leaseholder.
TAIPED estimates the buildings’ maintenance costs at 100 million euros for the duration of the 20-year lease. At the end of those 20 years the Greek state may either leave the buildings or buy them back at their current market price.
The agreement further includes certain terms to the state’s benefit, allowing for the so-called break option of releasing some of the buildings (up to 20 percent) for some time or even subletting them to third parties.
The deal is now only awaiting the approval of the State Audit Council. If that happens in time and before the end of the year, then the sale and leaseback of the buildings will raise the revenues of TAIPED for 2013 from just over 1 billion to 1.3 billion euros. This is also the revised target agreed with the representatives of the country’s creditors for this year.
Meanwhile, TAIPED has also short-listed eight investment schemes for the tender concerning the operation of the marina and the port of Pylos, in the southwestern Peloponnese.
