Tabled amendment eyes return of water utilities’ shares from ‘super fund’ back to state; listing of Athens airport shares on ASE

A rider included in tabled draft legislation this week foresees a return of shares for the water and sewerage utilities in the greater Athens-Piraeus and greater Thessaloniki area, EYDAP and EYATh, respectively, back to the state’s sole possession.

The shares had previously been transferred to the memorandum-mandated Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations, an entity under the auspices of the finance ministry. The latter was established in 2016 under the then SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government to collect “significant government assets, aiming to their more efficient operation and exploitation,” as its charter reads.
The issue of a possible privatization of water supply in the country, in fact, contentiously emerged in the recent campaign before the May 25 general election, with now main opposition SYRIZA accusing incumbent New Democracy (ND) party of eyeing such a prospect.

The government flatly denied the accusation at the time, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, from the campaign trail, promising that one of the first bills to be introduced, should his center-right party be re-elected, would be a return of water utilities’ shares from the “super fund” back to the state.

The same amendment includes a provision regulating the framework for listing shares of the Athens International Airport S.A., on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), as well as extending a deadline for filing tax returns – for fiscal 2022 – to Aug. 31, 2023