Critical decisions for the fate of the sale of DEPA Commerce

Of Thanks to Floudopoulos

By January, the HRDH is expected to have decided on the next steps of the sale of DEPA Commerce, which is known to be frozen due to the court case that exists with ELFE (former phosphate fertilizer industry).

According to Fund sources, a number of scenarios and alternatives are being considered, depending on the intentions of the State and Hellenic Petroleum, which also sell their participation in the company together with the HRDH.

One scenario wants the Hellenic Petroleum Group to consider unblocking itself by selling its share (35%) in DEPA Commerce independently of the Greek government.

Another solution, which from time to time has fallen on the table and can be an alternative, is to proceed with the sale only of the subsidiary Natural Gas Hellenic Energy Company, which has as a significant lure the large portfolio of customers available in the gas supply market.

A third alternative, which, however, presents various problems, is the solution of the listing of DEPA Trading on the Stock Exchange.

Regarding other energy privatizations:

The shareholders’ agreement (SHA) is expected to be signed for DEPA Infrastructure next Friday, while the financial closing of the transaction is expected for the beginning of 2022.

For the underground warehouse of Kavala, the Board of HRDH has already made a decision to receive offers and awaits the decision of RAE for the regulatory issues related to infrastructure.

Specifically, the Regulator must decide on the percentage of socialization of the revenues of the underground warehouse. In any case, the current energy crisis and the explosion of gas prices make the project extremely relevant, which could help curb energy costs for consumers.

Finally, for Larko, and the tender that the HRDH is running for the public property of the company, ie the company’s factory and the mines in Larymna and Loutsi, there are two main pending issues.

The first concerns the fate of the company’s 1100 employees and the second the environmental issues. For the employees, although their contracts were terminated when LARCO went into liquidation, the government is still reportedly looking for a way for some of the staff to be re-hired by the new owner, while the rest to be absorbed by other public bodies. .

With regard to environmental issues, the main problem is to ensure that the new owner does not face fines from the past.

In the light of the outstanding issues, the most probable scenario is that the submission of binding offers is postponed at least for January 2022 or possibly later.