Greece accepted on Jan. 21 an improved bid of €368.5 million by Cosco Group to acquire a 67 percent stake in Piraeus Port.

The board of the country's privatisation agency (HRADF) met on Wednesday Jan. 20 to evaluate the Chinese group’s offer and declared Cosco as the highest bidder and invited it to submit the required documents to name the company as a preferred investor.

The process resumed under the terms of a third international bailout for Greece of up to 86 billion euros ($94 billion) in August.

The privatization includes the acquisition of an additional 15 percent in the port to be conceded after five years under certain conditions, including the implementation of investments totaling €350 million.

In May this year we reported that three bidders were shortlisted for the Piraeus Port: APM Terminals B.V., COSCO (Hong Kong) Group Limited, and International Container Terminal Services, Inc, (ICTSI).

Piraeus Port is one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe, according to OLP data, and one of the top cargo ports in the Mediterranean. Cargo traffic rose 15% to 3.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2013. 

These privatization is part of the Greece's privatisation programme, which aims to raise around €6.4 billion (US$7.27 billion) by 2017. It will be the second large privatisation for Tsipras's government. Greece recently sealed a 1.2 billion euro leasing deal for 14 regional airports with Germany's Fraport.