THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Required to contribute €50bn towards its own bail-out, Greece is finally facing up to the sale of its most treasured assets.
Roll up, roll up, roll up. Elgin Marbles, Acropolis, Mykonos. Anyone? You don't have to be an ancient Greek historian to understand the significance of it. But maybe it helps. For Thucydides, born back in 460 BC, the Port of Piraeus was the commercial heart of the Athenian democracy. "From all the lands, everything enters," wrote the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War.
But now the port is up for sale – alongside the sort of assets even Thucydides would never have envisaged – in the biggest and most controversial privatisation Greece has ever seen.
Under pressure to raise €50bn as the quid pro quo for its massive €110bn (£98bn) bail-out, Greece is being forced to hawk its industrial and commercial backbone to the highest bidder.
On the block, alongside the Government's 74pc stake in Piraeus, is a similar-sized holding in the country's other main gateway port – Thessaloniki. Then there are the government's stakes in a host of public and private companies – as well as tracts of land. Corporate assets include OTE, the largest telecommunications company in the Balkans; PPC, the country's biggest electricity producer; horse-racing organisation ODIE; the state's 34pc stake in Europe's biggest betting company OPAP; another 34pc stake in Hellenic Postbank and train operator TrainOSE.
It is a gut-wrenching moment for a nation, whose heavily unionised workers are unlikely to be forced into accepting such privatisations without a fight.
Kevin Featherstone, professor of contemporary Greek at the LSE, says the sell-offs push Greece's capabilities to the limits. "It is very controversial. It is testing the limits of what government should be doing," he says. "It is a challenging thought that foreigners have come to sell the family silver.
"But the Greek government has realised the depth of the crisis. And so have the people of Greece. If the choice is between further tax rises or more job losses then people are OK with OPAP being sold."
That it has come to this goes right to the heart of the eurozone bail-out programme, highlighting the political tensions between the main provider of funds – Germany – and the weaker southern nations taking the money. That German companies are likely to wind up as the owners of many of the assets only adds to the controversy. Read on and comment » | Helia Ebrahimi, Senior City Correspondent | Sunday, June 05, 2011
