ATHENS – The Greek company that’s leading an international consortium planning the 8-billion euro ($8.85 billion) development of the abandoned Hellenikon International Airport – hoped to begin this year – said it will buy out its two partners.
Lamda, which built the Athens Mall under conditions said to be unlawful, will be the sole developer after buying the stake held by Chinese multinational Fosun and Abu Dhabi’s Eagle Mills, the three having teamed as the Global Investment Group.
Lamda’s Board of Directors said an extraordinary general assembly of shareholders will be convened to approve of a share capital increase up to 650 million euros ($719.5 million) to make it happen.
According to Lamda, negotiations have been taking place over the past few months in a “good climate,” the business newspaper Naftermporiki said. Shortly after New Democracy won the July 7 snap elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would accelerate the development that had stalled under the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA that had hard-core elements who don’t want foreign businesses operating in Greece.
Mitsotakis the met with Spiros Latsis, the billionaire head of the consortium that’s been eager to get started but the Premier couldn’t, as he vowed, get the project going immediately, any construction likely pushed back to the end of the year if then.
Lambda blamed former premier and now major opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras for blocking the project for 4-½ years at the same time he said foreign investors were critical for a burgeoning slow recovery.
Earlier, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis said his ministry would accelerate the licensing process so that Lamda can lease the property from the state and start construction.
The consortium plans are to turn the airport into a complex of luxury residences, hotels, yachting marina and casino after the original plans to create the largest urban park in Europe were set aside during an economic crisis, the government preferring cash.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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