The latest attempt by the Greek government to sell loss-making Olympic Airlines has seen it receive five bids for the carrier. It resumed its efforts to sell Olympic late last year. The bidders that have made binding offers were all groups that expressed interest in the first phase of the tender process.
The list features Greek carrier Aegean Airlines and Intro, which is the German investment group that bought Deutsche BA from British Airways in mid-2003. A Greek-America group called Olympic Investors, London-based investment firm Klesch & Company and a Dutch group called Sure Estates make up the companies that have declared their interested in buying Olympic.
The government is seeking to sell a majority stake in Olympic Airlines and says it wants to move forward within months. The revival of the carrier and the sale process has been under intense scrutiny from the European Commission which all along has monitored the Greek government's manoeuvres with Olympic to ensure it does not breach state aid rules.
The carrier was formed in late 2003 out of the flying operations of the Olympic Airways group, which included the mainline carrier, regional Olympic Aviation and Macedonian Airlines, in a bid to reduce high debt levels.
Source: Airline Business
