Head of Greek privatisation fund resigns

Greece’s privatisation fund says its president has resigned for personal reasons.

“Ioannis Koukiadis submitted his resignation to interim Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias last week for “purely personal reasons,” the fund said in an announcement Wednesday. Koukiadis had been appointed as head of the Asset Development Fund in late July last year.

In May, the fund said it was temporarily suspending activity on the country’s ambitious drive to sell off state assets until after the June 17 elections. Under its international bailout agreements, Greece committed to raise 19 billion ($23.7 billion) through privatisations by 2015, and has so far raised only about 1.5 billion.

The anti-bailout Radical Left Coalition party, which came second in the elections, had insisted that no decisions be made on privatisations until after the polls.