A few businesses for sale

**kefallon** · 2nd June 2010, 19:26

if your rich

ATHENS--The Greek government Wednesday announced long-delayed plans to privatize state-owned companies as part of its attempt to fix the country's public finances and chip away at the massive public debt.
In a news conference, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said the government would move to privatize 49% of the operations division of unprofitable state-owned railways company OSE.
It will also privatize state holdings in various casinos, sell a 39% stake in the Greek post office, and dispose of stakes in a variety of state-owned services including the waterworks companies of Greece's two major cities.

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Greece is struggling to cut its budget deficit from a record 13.6% of gross domestic product last year to 8.1% in 2010, while it also faces a rising debt burden that will reach 124.9% of GDP this year.
Last month, Greece agreed to a three-year austerity and reform program in an exchange for a €110 billion ($135 billion) loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Under the terms of the deal, Greece must move ahead with the restructuring of OSE by the end of this month. The company is burdened by more than €10 billion in debt and loses €1 billion a year, Mr. Papaconstantinou said.
"The memorandum [with the EU and IMF] foresees revenue of €1 billion a year for the period 2011-13," Mr. Papaconstantinou said. "But our estimates are definitely higher than those foreseen in the projections."
He said the government is also looking at other opportunities to privatize state assets, either through stake sales or through privatized management contracts, including the country's ports, airports and vast state property holdings. Mr. Papaconstantinou said the government is also restructuring Greece's natural gas monopoly to prepare it for privatization.
But the finance minister gave few details and said the privatizations would take place over a three-year time frame and following various studies.
He said there would be no change in the government's holdings of leading state companies OPAP SA, the Greek gambling monopoly, or Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA the incumbent telephone operator, now 30% controlled by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.