May 31 (SeeNews) - Greece's privatisation agency HRADF said that five potential investors have submitted on time their expressions of interest towards the acquisition of a stake of at least 50.1% in Hellenic Petroleum, a leading energy group in Southeast Europe (SEE).
Expressions of interest were submitted by Alrai Group Holdings, Gupta Family Group, Glencore Energy UK, Vitol Holding and a consortium comprising Carbon Asset Management DWC and Alshaheen Group, the privatisation authority, Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Hellenic Petroleum's business in SEE comprises networks of filling stations in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia operating under the EKO brand, the OKTA oil refinery in Macedonia, as well as filling stations in Cyprus. The group owns three of the four oil refineries in Greece.
In April, HRADF said that the public tender process will be conducted in two phases, a pre-qualification phase and a binding offers phase, to which only shortlisted investors will be invited.
The shares of Hellenic Petroleum are primarily listed on the Athens Exchange with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. The biggest shareholder of Hellenic Petroleum is Luxembourg-based Paneuropean Oil and Industrial Holdings (POIH) with a 45.47% stake and Greek state through HRADF with a 35.48% stake. The remaining stake of 19.05% is in free float and is held by institutional and private investors, HRADF said in April.
HRADF and POIH have agreed to divest jointly a combined majority stake representing at least 50.1% of the share capital of Hellenic Petroleum through an international open tender process, to be carried out by HRADF. The exact percentage and number of Hellenic Petroleum shares to be jointly disposed of by the sellers shall be specified in the request for binding offers.
Hellenic Petrol activities also include fuels marketing, petrochemicals production, power generation, oil and gas exploration and production, renewable energy, consulting and engineering services.