* Grid sale condition of country’s multi-billion bailout
* PPC to sell 24 percent stake to a strategic investor
* Unions had opposed the deal (Updates with approval of sale)
By Angeliki Koutantou
ATHENS, July 11 Shareholders in dominant Greek power utility PPC on Monday agreed to sell a 24 percent stake in grid subsidiary ADMIE to a strategic investor, in line with the terms of the country’s latest international bailout.
Under the bailout approved in August last year, PPC, which is 51-percent owned by the state, must either sell a minority stake in ADMIE or fully privatise the grid by next year.
Monday’s overwhelming approval came amid stiff opposition from unions, who had disrupted an earlier attempt to convene a shareholders meeting, forcing PPC to switch the venue for the gathering to the finance ministry from a central Athens hotel.
Underlining the sentiment against privatisations in the country, union staff members also disrupted a meeting on the same issue on June 30.
“The legislation that has been enacted … aims to renationalise the grid. The only difference is that it will be bought by a foreign state company,” the head of PPC workers’ union George Adamides told Reuters.
Adamides said the sale would mean higher tariffs for Greek consumers and put PPC jobs at risk, adding that the union will take legal action at a Greek top court to try to annul the divestment of the minority stake.
Workers walked out for three hours on Monday to protest the sale and government plans mandated by its lenders to transfer PPC and the grid, along with other state assets, to a new umbrella privatisation fund that will be set up by September.
Unions have strongly resisted privatisations, a central demand of Greece’s official creditors since 2010 that has failed to bring in much revenue so far. Greece is aiming to raise about 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) from asset sales by 2018.
The sale of a stake in the grid of more than 11,000 km (7,000 miles) of high-voltage power cables is also part of a creditor-mandated drive to curb PPC’s dominance of the local retail market.
PPC controlled about 92 percent of the Greek retail market at the end of March, down from about 96 percent last year, and its market share is expected to drop to below 50 percent by 2020.
PPC Chairman Manolis Panagiotakis said on Monday that PPC has been seeking to expand its footprint in foreign markets to make up for the losses.
He said it was examining specific investment plans in Turkey, where it already has operations, and will soon set up a division in Tirana, Albania, to tap into opportunities in the Western Balkans.
($1 = 0.9052 euros) (Writing by Michele Kambas; editing by Ruth Pitchford and David Clarke)
Source: Reuters.com