Why Louis-Dreyfus bid for Thessaloniki Port stake

The Swiss billionaires of the Louis-Dreyfus household person tabled a ceremonial connection for acquiring the full escaped interval bundle of shares successful Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTH) successful what mightiness beryllium the cultivation merchandise entrepreneurs’ archetypal concern successful Greece.

In a bourse filing connected Friday, the family’s LeonidsPort BV institution announced the submission of a bid with a sizeable premium of 12.5% connected the port’s stock terms that the OLTH ownership will seemingly find hard to reject, stock marketplace sources argue. It concerns a 21% stake successful OLTH astatine a terms of 27 euros per share. The total connection exceeds €57 million.

Given that the connection concerns the full acceptable of shares connected escaped float, OLTH will either person to beryllium delisted aft accepting it oregon behaviour a secondary merchantability for escaped interval to instrumentality to a minimum 15% of the stock capital.

It is noted that the state holds a 7.27% stake successful the larboard authority. The biggest stake – 71.85% of the stock superior – belongs to a radical of interests of the household of Ivan Savvidis, while French transport institution CMA-CGM besides has a number stake successful this group.

According to an informal briefing by associates of the Dreyfus radical successful Greece, the voluntary nationalist connection was made due to the fact that “the Louis-Dreyfus household has distinguished the unique characteristics of the larboard of Thessaloniki, arsenic well arsenic its improvement potential. The determination of the larboard of Thessaloniki makes it an important gateway to Southeast Europe and a captious transit hub for the Balkans.” At the aforesaid time, “the port’s escaped zone facilitates the transport of goods and products betwixt Europe and Asia, making it a vital halfway for planetary trade.”

The Louis-Dreyfus household is simply a Swiss family, primitively from Alsace, France. The Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) is presently led by Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, chairwoman of the company, and is considered 1 of the 4 largest agrifood trading companies successful the world. LDC is simply a planetary vertically integrated agrifood trading and processing company, with 1 of the astir diversified portfolios successful the agribusiness space.