ATHENS: China’s COSCO is expected to make an offer for Greece’s rail network after earlier becoming the sole bidder for the country’s largest port, two people familiar with the matter said, as the state-owned shipping giant forges ahead with a plan to build a European transhipment hub.
Buying TrainOSE and Piraeus Port would give COSCO maritime connections to the Suez Canal and rail links to the Balkans and central and Eastern Europe.
Bolstered by December’s merger with China Shipping Group, COSCO’s focus on Greece is about building market share at a time of anguish in a bruised and oversupplied shipping sector, industry sources said.
It also fits with China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy to boost trade and create an outlet for Chinese industrial powerhouses caught up in the global downturn and slower growth at home.
COSCO was unchallenged in its US$400 million offer for a 67 percent stake in Piraeus Port last month. However, it could face competition for the rail network, including from United States railroad holding company Watco, one of the individuals said, after Greece relaunched the tender in an effort to drum up more interest. TrainOSE has an estimated value of dozens of millions of euros.
“COSCO and Watco are interested in TrainOSE,” said the source, who declined to be identified.
“There is also a Greek group which is interested and is looking for a partner.”
A COSCO spokeswoman declined to comment on prospective bids for other Greek assets.
She said the firm believes buying Piraeus will improve the port’s competitiveness and efficiency, but declined to elaborate on the plans.
Watco could not be reached for comment and the source didn’t name the Greek firm.
Officials in Greece have said it is too early to comment on specifics, but a sale is almost inevitable: a separate source close to the matter said that without a sale TrainOSE could be forced to return millions of euros in state subsidies to the European Union.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ government opposes privatizations and halted the sale of the port last year. The process resumed under a third international bailout of up to 86 billion euros (US$96.2 billion) in August.
