Greece plans Athens airport IPO in February -sources

By Angeliki Koutantou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece plans an initial public offering (IPO) of Athens International Airport, the country's biggest, on the Athens Stock Exchange next month, two sources with knowledge of the plan said on Wednesday.

The government in Athens wants to divest a 30% stake owned by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), the country's privatisation agency.

A previous effort to sell the stake to private investors in 2018-2020 ended after COVID-19 brought world travel to a halt.

The Greek sovereign wealth fund HCAP (Hellenic Corporation of Assets & Participations) holds another 25% in the lucrative asset which handled more than 26 million passengers, mostly foreign nationals, last year, a 25% annual rise.

An IPO for a 19% stake in the airport and the listing is seen happening "in the first half of February", a senior HRADF official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another official told Reuters last year that the agency aimed to list the airport in the first quarter of 2024 and sell to Germany-based airport manager AviAlliance, which currently holds a 40% stake, a further 10% at a premium to the IPO price.

An additional stake of 1% will be sold to the Copelouzos family, which owns 5% of the airport, the HRADF official said.

To open the way for the listing, the Greek parliament is expected to approve on Thursday amendments to a 1995 deal signed between the state and the airport company which set out the terms for the operation of the airport.

State asset sales were a key pillar of Greece's three international bailouts, which were worth about 260 billion euros in total between 2010-2018. These have helped the country, which is still the euro zone's most indebted nation, attract private investors to overhaul state companies and reduce debt.

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Alexander Smith)