GEK Terna group on Friday deposited a 3.27 -billion-euro lump sum payment as the preferred investor in a recent international tender for the 25-year concession of the Attiki Odos tollway in the greater Athens-Piraeus area.
The tender was managed by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), Greece semi-independent privatization agency. The 3.27 billion euros for the 25-year concession is the largest such consideration ever received by HRADF.
The concession agreement had been ratified by a majority of deputies in Parliament a day earlier, and will come into effect on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024.
The 3.27 billion euros paid by ATHEX-listed GEK Terna, one of the biggest construction, energy and concession conglomerates in SE Europe, is forecast to reduce Greece’s public debt by 1.5% of GDP.
Besides the lump sum payment, the concessionaire is obliged to convey 9.3% of all gross revenue to state coffers, a figure that’s higher than the 7.5% foreseen in the original contract with the company that built and later exploited the now 70-kilometer in length tollway and branches.
The main stretch of the tollway extends arc-like from the Elefsina district in the west to the Athens Interntional Airport in the east and passing through several heavily populated areas of the greater Athens area.
The new contract will also see tolls dropping from 2.80 euros to 2.50 euros passenger vehicles.
