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The national gas company DEPA, the state lottery OPAP and the Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos were the first three fortune slips the government took out of the hat of surprises called privatization programme. The privatization of these enterprises must be held within 2011 and it is expected to bring at least two billion euros.  The trumps are mainly DEPA and the state lottery because in the case of the airport just the continuation of the concession is expected rather than the share sale, reported Imerisia.

65% of the national gas company is owned by the state, while 35% belongs to the Greek oil company. The interministerial committee on privatization appointed this week a new consultant for the preparation of the privatization plan. The previous consultants from Alfa Bank, UBS and Rothschild were appointed on 15 December last year, but now Clifford Chance LLPs, experts in European and international law, took their place.

The overall privatization programme should be completed with an amount of 50 billion euros in the state pocket by 2015. It will be implemented in three stages. The first will include the most profitable state companies which are most attractive for investors. These include the state lottery OPAP, the Mont Parnes Casino, the Greek defence systems, the national post and 49% of the state railways. Then follow concessions of roads, highways, airports and ports, which are still in the process of assessment, and will be included in the privatization programme in a step by step process in 2012.

The state property plays a major role in this project but it appeared that it has not been fully described yet. To speed up the process, the government has sent invitations to seven of the largest Greek banks to assume the role of consultants through their specialized real estate units. The National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, Marfin Bank, ATE Bank and Emboriki Bank will undertake the assessment of the state property so as to prepare it for the upcoming tenders. They will have full access to the archives of the state real estate management company, the company owning the Olympic properties and the state tourist attractions. They will start from properties that have no legal ownership problems and then will continue with the mess in which a building may turn out to be, for example, owned by three or four public institutions.  

The hysteria that erupted after the Troika’s statement that Greece should privatize whatever it owns has been growing in the last month. Opinions shot up out of the public space that the government would sell off the state and that Greece would no longer be owned by the Greeks. To appease the spirits, George Papandreou's government decided not to sell state property but to grant the right of use for 30, 50 or 99 years depending on the contract.  Following the British model in which land and some property is still owned by heirs with blue blood but are granted for temporary use (up to 100 years) to the ordinary people with money, the neglected Greek state properties will look for a new owner.