June 23, 2011
A wooden sculpture of a man’s head locked in a vise sits behind Aristotelis Karytinos, general manager of real estate at National Bank of Greece SA and a government adviser on making money from state assets.
“That’s how we’re all feeling lately,” Karytinos said of the figurine perched on a cabinet in the central Athens office, his desk covered in documents he must sift through.
Greece has promised to raise 35 billion euros ($50 billion) from state property by 2015 as part of plans to win more international aid and avoid defaulting on its debt. Like with other bailout conditions, from selling stakes in companies to tax collection, there are complications and delays.
A group of nine domestic banks advising the government must study each property individually to ensure that they are not in litigation or lack permits, topographical studies or restrictions governing their use, Karytinos said.
Greece is the only country in Europe without a centralized registry of deeds. About 40 percent of registered state properties are disputed and an additional 25 percent have “questionable” legal status, George Papaconstantinou, the Greek finance minister until he was replaced on June 17, told lawmakers earlier this year.
“It’s a herculean task,” Diego Iscaro, an economist at research company IHS Global Insight in London, said by telephone yesterday. “There are deep-rooted structural problems related to the assets up for privatization and they can’t be addressed in just a year or two.”
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