Greece to raise cash on Corfu, Rhodes land

Greece is preparing to raise money from state land on the islands of Rhodes and Corfu as the country seeks to generate at least 50 billion euros ($66.5 billion) from government assets. “We are carrying out due diligence on a land plot of 1.5 million square meters on the island of Rhodes and a smaller plot of about half a million square meters on Corfu,” said Andreas Taprantzis, executive director for real estate at the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund. “We hope to have tenders out for their exploitation by the end of the first half.” In December, the development fund started a public tender process for a majority stake in Elliniko SA, the company with the right to manage and develop Athens’s former international airport under a long-term lease that covers 6.2 million square meters (66.7 million square feet) of land. The tender process for the island land will be similar to the one used for Elliniko on the southern Athens coast, Taprantzis said. Greece set a target of raising the 50 billion euros from state assets by 2017. Taprantzis said real estate will account for slightly more than half of the total and he expects to raise that amount from property by 2020. “Our work with real estate assets is primarily transformational and that takes a lot of time,” Taprantzis said. “The targets are challenging but perfectly feasible.” [Bloomberg]