Greece Confirms Fraport Airports Deal

Greece has confirmed it will award concessions to operate more than a dozen regional airports to Germany's Fraport, with the previously-frozen EUR€1.2 billion deal set to be agreed in the coming weeks.

A preliminary deal was struck in 2014 but was thrown into doubt after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's government took power in January and said it would review the agreement.

On Tuesday, a Greek government official said a decision published in the government gazette confirmed its commitment to proceed with the deal on the previously-agreed terms, part of the latest bailout with Greece's lenders.

Once ratified, the deal would be the first privatisation sale completed by the Tsipras government, which has long opposed the sale of strategic state assets but agreed to implement privatisations in exchange for bailout funds.

"It paves the way for the final agreement in the coming weeks," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that some legal and technical issues remain.

A spokesman for Fraport said the government's decision was "the basis for further negotiations" but no contracts had been signed.

Fraport and Greek energy firm Copelouzos had agreed with the Greek privatisation agency in 2014 that it would operate 14 airports in tourist destinations including Corfu, striking one of Greece's biggest privatisation deals since the start of the debt crisis.

Under the terms of the deal, the German-Greek group was expected to spend about EUR€330 million in the first four years to upgrade the airports, which would be leased for 40 years.