SNMRY Snam SPA (PK)

   By Nektaria Stamouli 
 

ATHENS--Greece's state privatization agency is seeking a higher bid from the consortium led by Italy's Snam SpA (SRG.MI), which offered the highest price in the tender for a majority stake in gas grid-operator DESFA.

Greece relaunched the tender for a 66% stake in DESFA last year after a 400 million-euro ($495.91 million) deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR collapsed in 2016. The sale is part of the privatization program Greece agreed to under the terms of its third bailout.

Last month, the country received two binding bids from a consortium comprising Italy's Snam, Spain's Enagas Internacional and Fluxys Belgium SA (FLUX.BT), and from another composed of Spain's Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa), Romania's Transgaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Greece asked both suitors to raise their prices and after unsealing the improved bids, asked the Snam-led consortium to submit a further improved offer, which the privatization fund will assess in a meeting. The offer was higher than EUR500 million although that number will rise with the improved bid, officials said.

Under the agreed-upon timetable, the deal is due to be signed in April and the sale completed by June, before Greece's third bailout program expires in August.

Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2018 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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