Greece on Monday will announce the team that will head its privatizations agency set up to undertake billions of euros in asset sales to help pay down public debt, a finance ministry official said, Reuters reports. Athens is under pressure from its international lenders to sell stakes in key state firms, aiming to raise 50 billion euros ($71.5 billion) from privatizations by 2015 to pay down its debt mountain.
The divestments, a condition for a second European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout for Greece after a 110-billion-euro rescue last year, start this year aiming to meet a 5.0 billion euro target.
"The finance minister will announce the board structure of the privatizations agency on Monday," the official told Reuters, declining to comment on names appearing in Monday's press.
On Friday, a banking source told Reuters Eurobank executive Costas Mitropoulos would head the privatizations agency as managing director.
Mitropoulos currently heads Eurobank Equities, the investment arm of Greece's second-largest lender EFG Eurobank.
Newspapers Ta Nea and Imerisia reported on Monday that Yannis Koukiadis, a law professor and former socialist deputy, would be appointed as board chairman and that Antonis Vartholomeos, who formerly ran utility Athens Water would join the board, proposed by the conservative opposition.
EU officials have asked the government to step up privatizations urgently and suggested setting up a trustee institution to help oversee the process, similar to the body that privatized East German companies after the fall of communism.
Greece, which has already sold a 10 percent stake in OTE Telecoms to Deutsche Telekom, plans more divestments including stakes in gas company DEPa, Hellenic Postbank, Athens Water and Piraeus Port.
Eurobank Equities covers a full range of investment banking activities, including trading in shares and derivatives, initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions.
The divestments, a condition for a second European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout for Greece after a 110-billion-euro rescue last year, start this year aiming to meet a 5.0 billion euro target.
"The finance minister will announce the board structure of the privatizations agency on Monday," the official told Reuters, declining to comment on names appearing in Monday's press.
On Friday, a banking source told Reuters Eurobank executive Costas Mitropoulos would head the privatizations agency as managing director.
Mitropoulos currently heads Eurobank Equities, the investment arm of Greece's second-largest lender EFG Eurobank.
Newspapers Ta Nea and Imerisia reported on Monday that Yannis Koukiadis, a law professor and former socialist deputy, would be appointed as board chairman and that Antonis Vartholomeos, who formerly ran utility Athens Water would join the board, proposed by the conservative opposition.
EU officials have asked the government to step up privatizations urgently and suggested setting up a trustee institution to help oversee the process, similar to the body that privatized East German companies after the fall of communism.
Greece, which has already sold a 10 percent stake in OTE Telecoms to Deutsche Telekom, plans more divestments including stakes in gas company DEPa, Hellenic Postbank, Athens Water and Piraeus Port.
Eurobank Equities covers a full range of investment banking activities, including trading in shares and derivatives, initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions.