Greece’s privatisation fund said on Monday it was pressing on with the sale of another state-owned company, just a day after its chief executive was sacked for accepting favours from a businessman involved in a deal.
The fund, known as HRADF, said it is seeking a buyer to take full ownership of the train maintenance company, ROSCO. It provided no pricing details.
The former rail subsidiary is among a group of companies and properties that have been transferred to the HRADF for sale or fixed-time concession under a privatisation program demanded by Greece’s bailout creditors.
Already struggling with severe delays and a failed attempt to sell a natural gas firm to Russian energy giant Gazprom, the program suffered a new blow Sunday when the HRADF head was fired for allegedly violating ethics rules.
Stelios Stavridis’s dismissal followed the revelation that he accepted a lift to his Greek island holiday home on a jet owned by the head of a consortium that had just bought a 33 percent stake in betting firm OPAP for €654 million.
Stavridis denied any wrongdoing, saying the businessman had simply offered to help.
Greece’s main opposition party, the Syriza radical left coalition, said the affair was “a first, clear admission of the dirty relationship” between the conservative-led government and business interests.
