By the end of the year shares by DESFA may be purchased by SOCAR

The meeting of the head of the Greek division  of SOCAR Energy, Anar Mamedov, with representatives of the Fund for State Property Management of Greece (HRADF) and state-owned Hellenic Petroleum SA was successful. Based on the information on the website of the State Property Committee of the country, SOCAR intends to  complete by  21 December  this year  the acquisition of 66%  share in the Greek gas distribution company DESFA.

"All parties reaffirmed their strong will and determination to complete the deal as soon as possible",  stated in the material.  On  July 31, 2013 HRADF  approved the transaction in the amount of 400 million  Euros, and in December the same year, SOCAR signed an agreement with the State Property Committee of the country and the company «Petroleum», controlling the gas distribution network of Greece "The contract for the sale of shares" and "Contract among the shareholders. "

  The government  of Tsipras which came to power in September last year, has resigned , and decided to o revise the document, and invited SOCAR to sell a 49% share  in DESFA with the price required to be paid.  The second version of "alternative" conditions of the Greeks is almost the same - it provides for the completion of sale established in the competition 66% of DESFA, but with the additional agreement to buy out by the Greek government 17% interest in gas distribution company - that is, for them again, the remaining 51% stake in DESFA. Azerbaijan also intends to acquire 31% stake in DESFA from the Greek government and 35% - from Hellenic Petroleum SA without changing the conditions. At the same time before the transfer of control of DESFA to SOCAR  the sold package of shares  of the Greek company will be controlled by the Fund HRADF.

In accordance with the Third European Union Directive on Energy, the final decision on the deal receives European Commission, which in November last year launched a study of compliance of the  mentioned agreements  with the EU antitrust laws - it will take a year. So, December 21, 2015 is  a very real terms of acquisition of shares. The forecasts are optimistic, because the European Commission has a large joint projects with Azerbaijan. Sale of gas transmission operators is the  important points of the Greek privatization program, able to eventually bring the country about 1.5 billion Euros that could mitigate the falling of  Greece  to defaulting .-- 17D-