Facing financial ruin and scarcely available loans, Greece has put its airports, railways, roads, ports and even energy companies for sale in order to help pay 110 billion Euro debt ($157 billion), amid hopes that a Chinese investment will bail the country out.
There are hardly any private buyers for the Greek assets from within Greece or the European Union, prompting many in Greece to look at China and other foreign investors.
The assets for sale include 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, two energy companies, banks, thousands of acres of land, casinos and the national lottery, reports from Athens said.
According to George Christodoulakis, Greece's special secretary for asset, restructuring and privatisations, the sale of the assets would raise 50 billion Euro (about $71 billion) of the total 110 billion Euro bailout debt.
Severe austerity measures prompted by the debt crisis have already sparked riots and strikes in Greece. The Greek parliament is scheduled to vote on the austerity package today.
Last year, China's state-owned shipping company Cosco took control of most of the Athens port, Greece's largest container facility. The port is already considered a 'Chinatown'. Union leader Sotiris Poulikoyiannis said, "We're all trying to learn Chinese now. We all have to do it, all of Europe".
Privatisation of parts of the Greek public sector was agreed upon as part of a massive bail-out plan by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund earlier this year.
Nikos Stathopoulous, managing partner of BC Partners, which has invested more than 3.5 billion Euro in Greece, said that investors were put off by bureaucracy, strong unions, corruption and a lack of transparency.
He said, "Even in better times, Greece was not a country that attracted investment. Foreign investors don't want to invest in a country where there is no flexibility in hiring and firing people. You don't want to invest in a country in which you wake up and a new law has been passed that totally undermines and destroys the value of the investment you've just made".
Aref Lahham, managing director and founding partner of Orion Capital Managers, said most private equity firms would not buy Greek assets because the "risks are too high". He said, "I think people will not buy those assets. That is the sad truth".
