Greece’s Piraeus Port posts flat profit, sales dip
By: Reuters | Aug 27 2014 at 12:27 PM | Ports & Terminals
Greece’s Piraeus Port (OLP) , the largest in the country, said its first-half net profit was almost unchanged from the same year-ago period, while sales fell.
Piraeus Port, which is privatisation, is one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe, a popular destination for cruise ships and one of the top cargo ports in the Mediterranean.
The state-owned company reported a net profit of 3.3 million euros (4.3 million US dollar) in the first six months of 2014.
Sales dropped by 3.3 percent to 50.2 million euros, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
China’s Cosco Pacific won a 35-year concession in 2009 to upgrade and run two container cargo piers at the port. It wants to turn Piraeus into a regional hub.
The Chinese company is among five suitors shortlisted as potential buyers of a majority stake in OLP, highlighting Chinese investors’ appetite for Greek assets as the crisis-hit country sells off parts of its businesses, a key term of its 240-billion euro bailout plan by the EU and the IMF.
U.S. terminal operator Ports America; Dutch container terminal operator APM Terminals; Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services ; and close-ended investment company Utilico Emerging Markets Limited are the other potential investors.