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The Russian company Sintez has remained the main candidate interested in buying the Greek public gas company DEPA. The company has offered 1.9 billion euro, which is considered the highest price the Public Property Management Fund has received as reported by To Vima, which cites the Russian edition of Kommersant. Against this amount, the Russian candidate will receive 65% of the ownership of the company.

Sintez is a Russian industrial holding company operating in the field of energy, exploration and extraction of minerals and fuels. It is owned by Russian billionaire Leonid Lebedev, who is present on the real estate as well as on the fuel market. Negusneft is the subsidiary of Sintez in Greece and the company operates in Namibia, Indonesia and Kurdistan in addition to finding the Balkan market attractive.

"We want to operate in countries with a favourable political and financial climate," the head of the company Andrey Korolev told russiaenergy.com and added, "We are present on the Balkan market through the production of energy and we are planning further expansion".

Other candidates for the purchase of DEPA and its subsidiary DESFA, which manages the distribution network, are the Russian public giant Gazprom, the Greek Motor Oil Hellas together with M & M GAS, and the consortium between the Greek holding company GEK TRENA and the PPF financial fund.

Europe seriously objects to Gazprom entering the Greek market. Western Europeans fear that the Mediterranean country may become the Trojan Horse as regards the increase of Russia’s influence and interests in Europe. For years, Gazprom has been a monopolist in the gas market in Europe, which is totally dependent on Russian gas.

The desire for diversification of supplies is strongly expressed by Brussels. So far, the only competitor that can stand in Russia’s way – Kazakhstan, has not yet sufficiently developed the deposits in the Caspian Sea and the public Gazprom is still dominant.

Sintez's lead over Gazprom in the bid for DEPA can be interpreted as a small victory in Europe's fight to limit the influence of the Russian public company in Greece. Gazprom supplies more than 80% of the natural gas in the country and the purchase of the Greek gas company will strengthen Russia's position in the Balkans.

The Russian electronic edition The Moscow Times, which refers to anonymous experts, does not exclude the possibility of Sintez and Gazprom having made a secret deal in which the state-owned company is a shadow buyer. "Gazprom realizes that it will be hard to obtain the asset, not because of the price but because of political pressure," says an anonymous expert to the edition. Andrey Korolev in turn denies a similar scenario but does not completely reject the possibility of cooperation with Gazprom, if it is beneficial to Sintez.

Market analysts consider that the course of the sale of DEPA and DESFA will determine the future interest of other foreign investors not only in the energy sector but also in other branches.

"After three years of layoffs and economic downturns we believe that 2013 will be a year of stabilization and that market recovery will be more intense," says the Executive Director of Colliers International Greece Ana Voukovic cited by Naftemporiki. In her opinion, investors will be more active this year and will focus primarily on tourism. The sectors of infrastructure projects such as the construction and improvement of roads, airports, ports, energy and logistics are expected to start recovering, the key driver of this process being the government's privatization programme.

The real estate market has reported some stabilization as well, although there is no strong investor interest yet. The uncertainty connected with the taxation of property is the reason for potential investors to wait and to not take concrete steps. The most favourable are the investment opportunities in buildings for industrial purposes and production. Their prices are attractive and the overall reduction of labour costs opens up opportunities for mobilizing the market.

There is hope for increased interest in office property as well. The demand for offices in specialized buildings remains higher whereas the price of office premises of secondary importance is expected to further decrease by 15% to 25% and in the commercial sites category, the demand for separate shops is lower compared to that for premises in shopping centres and parks.