Marfin Wins Olympic Airlines Deal

Greek investment firm Marfin Investment Group (MIG) is to acquire Olympic Airlines, the Greek carrier being sold by the government.

The deal with MIG was agreed despite a rival offer from private airline operator Aegean Airlines which was nearly twice as much as MIG’s offer.

Concern that Aegean’s bid would be rejected by EU Competition authorities convinced the Greek government to go with MIG’s €45.7m bid for Olympic’s flying operations and €16.7m for its technical base. The offer compared with bids of €90m and €20m respectively submitted by Aegean.

“The government’s legal and financial advisers informed us that the negotiations with MIG’s advisers for the sale of Olympic’s flying activities and technical base ended successfully,” Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis said in a statement.

The current deal is subject to EU clearance.

In February, it was reported that Swissport, an airport services subsidiary of Spain’s Ferrovial, had also submitted a binding offer of €44.8m for Olympic’s ground handling unit.

Source: Thomson Merger News