Barrier to rail sell-offs to be raised
The corporate contracts necessary for the privatization of Greek railway firms Trainose and Rosco will be signed next week to pave the way for the call to investors.
State sell-off fund TAIPED is said to have set January 15 as the deadline for the signing of the four contracts that will then be submitted to interested investors so that they can table their binding bids for the sale of 100 percent of the two firms within February.
Those corporate contracts between Trainose and Rosco and with railway property company GAIAOSE concern assets and services and are necessary for bidders to decide on the level of their offers.
The main sticking point is the contract between rail services operator Trainose and rolling stock operating company Rosco, regarding the supply of railway carriages by the latter to the former, because the determination of the cost of carriage maintenance services by Rosco at a high level would reduce the value of Trainose and increase that of Rosco. The issue has become a battleground for unionists too, who prevented the completion of a discussion on the issue at a Trainose board meeting just before the end of 2015.
