By L. Karageorgos
[email protected]
A new international tender for the sale of Hellenic Shipyards S.A’s assets is expected by February 2021, following an unanimous vote by the insolvent company’s creditors this week to reject a 15.5-million-euro offer by Pyletech Shipyards as unsatisfactory.
Pyletech Shipyards is part of the North Star group, controlled by Greek shipowner Theophilos Priovolos.
A convened assembly of creditors included the Greek state, ATHEX-listed Piraeus Bank and representatives of the shipyard’s workers.
Any new tender must be concluded by the end of March 2021, when the tenure of the current special administration regime running the company expires.
One of the pending issues that must be resolved is whether a new tender will coincide with the process to sell-off the remaining real estate owned by the shipyards by Hellenic Public Properties Company (HPPC) S.A – the state-run and memorandum-mandated entity that manages and exploits state-owned properties in Greece.
HPPC has set a minimum price of 55 million euros for the properties.
Workers at the large but debt-laden and loss-making shipyard have also demanded a legal amendment whereby a minimum price bid for the tender is set.
Besides Pyletech’s 15.1-million-euro bid, ONEX, which runs the Neorion Shipyard on the island of Syros, had submitted a symbolic one-million-euro bid.
