Cosco plans more investments in Greek ports
Cosco Pacific, the terminal operating arm of Chinese giant Cosco, has its sights set on more investments in Greece as potentially more state-owned assets come on the market, Seatrade Asia online reports.
Fu Chengqiu, managing director of its Greek unit Piraeus Container Terminal SA, was quoted as saying the company is currently doing feasibility studies on becoming involved in various privatisation projects in the next few months. These are believed to be worth around 300m euros in investment, and 200m euros of debt.
According to him, the Greek authorities have already expressed their interest in further investment by Cosco, and other Chinese companies, in their plans to privatize a range of around 22 top state-owned assets, believed to be worth around 50bn euros ($63bn).
Cosco has already expressed interest in building a 280m-euro logistics centre, and the privatization of Piraeus Port Authority, which would give it further opportunities to become involved in cruise liner operations, ship maintenance, coastal real estate, port management, and Piraeus's No 1 pier.
The Chinese firm has operated Piraeus's No 2 pier since June 2010 and built its No 3 pier. It signed a 35-year lease and pays 100m euros a year to the Greek government for its presence at the port.
Apart from further investment, Fu said his company has also been working on various financial plans in the event of Greece exiting the eurozone. Without elaborating, Fu said: "We have completed several packages of solutions, which are prepared for the worst situation."
