Qatar Said to Discuss Purchase of Resort From Greek State

By Sharon Smyth on February 21, 2013

Bloomberg business week

Greece has held talks with Qatar over the sale of the Astir Palace in a deal that would mark the first outright sale of a property in the country through the government’s 50 billion-euro ($67 billion) asset disposal program, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Representatives of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co., part of the Persian Gulf country’s sovereign-wealth fund, discussed the sale with Greek officials and the resort’s owners when Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited Doha last month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Astir Palace Hotel SA (ASTIR), the public company that owns the resort, has a market value of 285 million euros.

Greece is striving to attract foreign investment as the economy faces its sixth straight year of contraction and an unemployment rate that reached 27 percent in November. In 1993 and 2009 Astir Palace in Athens hosted the Bilderberg conference, an invitation-only annual gathering of European and American business and political leaders named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting took place in 1954.

The National Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which own the property, put out an international public tender on Jan. 16. The 120,000 square-meter (1.3 million square-foot) complex includes three hotels, private beaches and 58 bungalows on the Vouliagmeni peninsula 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Venizelos International Airport.

Celebrity Guests

Since its opening in the 1960s, the resort’s guests have included Jackie Onassis, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra, according to its website.

Spokesmen for the National Bank of Greece (TELL), and the state privatization fund declined to comment on the matter. Qatari Diar didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Greece’s plan to reduce public debt by selling assets is central to the country’s efforts to secure further financing from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The disposal program, which also includes stakes in utilities and mining companies, was delayed by months of negotiations over the country’s debt restructuring last year and two general elections that threatened Greece’s membership in the euro.

The Greek divestment plan has brought in 1.8 billion euros so far. NCH Capital Inc., a New-York based private-equity firm, will invest 100 million euros to develop a strip of land on the Greek Island of Corfu under a 99-year concession, the fund said in January. It plans to announce a bidder for a larger project on the island of Rhodes in the next several months.

London Townhouse

Greece is trying to raise 2.6 billion euros in 2013. This month it set a minimum bid price of 22 million pounds ($34 million) for a London townhouse that’s one of six overseas properties for sale, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The privatization fund also chose London & Regional, Elbit Cochin Island Ltd. and Lamda Development SA for the second round of bidding for most of Hellenikon SA, which will develop the site of the former Athens International Airport.

“It’s difficult and challenging at the same time to estimate a figure for the asset due to its unique location,” said Ioannis Kaligiannakis, a senior appraiser at real estate consulting firm Colliers International in Athens. “The value is also underpinned by development potential including conversion of the existing hotel establishments to residential units, partial demolition, refurbishments and new developments including 3,000 square meters for a conference center.”

State Owned

National Bank of Greece holds 85 percent of the traded Astir Palace Hotel company. It also owns a site where the other two hotels and 58 bungalows are located. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) operates the Westin Athens Astir Palace Beach Resort and the Arion Resort & Spa Astir Palace, which includes the bungalows. Among the resort’s restaurants is Matsuhisa Athens, a sushi eatery owned by Nobu Matsuhisa that overlooks the Aegean Sea.

In 2011, National Bank of Greece paid 43 million euros for a 40-year lease of the tourist port that connects the resort by sea to make the asset more attractive. It spent 70 million euros refurbishing the hotels before the 2004 Olympics, according to the bank’s annual reports.

The price will be determined by factors including accords already in place with hotel operators, access to the marina and the additional development potential of the site, according to Colliers’ Kaligiannakis.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon Smyth in Madrid at ssmyth2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.