June 7, 2011
Greece is for sale—cheap—and Germany is buying.
German companies are hunting for bargains in Greece as the debt-stricken government moves to sell state-owned assets to stabilize the country's finances.
Deutsche Telekom AG on Monday said it would purchase an additional 10% stake in Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA for about €400 million, or roughly $590 million, increasing the German company's ownership to 40%. The purchase of OTE, as the Greek telecom is known, will be a steal compared with the nearly €4 billion the German company has paid since 2008 to amass its 30% stake.
Deutsche Telekom doesn't have a choice about the latest purchase; Athens exercised a put option that was struck in 2008. The company expressed confidence in Greece's prospects, however.
Other German companies are bargain hunting in Greece, despite foreign investors' mixed experiences in the crisis-hit country. Fraport AG, which owns and operates Frankfurt Airport, has expressed interest in acquiring Greece's 55% stake in Athens International Airport. The German company has stakes or management contracts in 12 other airports around the world.
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