Germany buys Greek airports and maybe more

The relationship between Germany and Greece is a very troubled one: the former symbolyzes the country that punishes via authority and privatizations and the latter represents the country that suffers the punishment. One of the main state owned assets that have been sold are airports because of their privatizations. Last month the German company Fraport took control of more than 14 regional airports paying Greece 1.2 billion euros, the largest contribution to the privatization programme obtained so far. The company is going to maintain, innovate and manage the operations of Greek airports. More recently, the German company AviAlliance was re-awarded the concession to control the biggest airport in the country for another 20 years till 2046: the Athens International Airport, thus allowing Greece to raise 600 million dollars. Thus, the company is a majority shareholder of the airport owning 40% of the airport. This plan will need approval of the European Authorities as well as of the Greek Parliament. Other candidates for the sell- off are 35.5% of the Hellenic Petroleum and 5% of the biggest telecom operator in Greece. However, this is just a very small part of the three packages bail-out plan that encompasses the fundraising of 6 billion euros via the sale of state owned assets that needs to be achieved by next year.