EYATH is currently the holder of the exclusive right to provide water supply and sewerage services in the greater urban region of Thessaloniki (to a population exceeding one million persons) until the year 2031. EYATH is a company listed in the Athens Exchange and the Fund currently holds a 74% stake therein.

Main features of the project:

  • The Fund will transfer a stake of 51% in EYATH as well as the management rights over EYATH to the preferred bidder
  • The Fund will maintain a stake of 23% in EYATH and will enter into a shareholders' agreement with the preferred bidder
  • The Concession Agreement between EYATH and the Greek State will be amended. The exact terms of the Concession Agreement which are to be amended and/or commercially clarified, as the case may be, will be determined in the Second Phase of the Tender Procedure.

The Fund has published an invitation (the Invitation) which sets out the procedure and the requirements with respect to the first phase of the Tender Procedure.

Financial Qualification Requirements

Each Interested Party must demonstrate the following atributes, based on its annual audited consolidated financial statements for the three (3) most recent financial years:

  1. Shareholders' Equity: average shareholders' equity equal to eighty million Euros (€80,000,000) or higher, and
  2. Leverage: average financial leverage of no more than 5.50 x Net debt/EBITDA ("Leverage Multiple") by calculating the average of the three annual Leverage Multiples. For the purposes of this calculation Net debt is defined as the aggregate financial indebtedness less any cash and cash equivalents. Private Equity firms are exempted from the above qualification criteria but must have uncommited and unutilised funds for investment of no less that Euro 80,000,000.

Technical Qualification Requirements

Each Interested Party must demonstrate:

  1. experience in managing, planning, operating and maintaining water supply and sewerage infrastructure and services; and

  2. experience in managing, planning, operating and maintaining water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities (including treatment by-product disposal); and
  3. experience in managing, planning, operating and maintaining customer metering, billing and revenue collection functions;

in a single system serving a population of at least 500,000 during the last three (3) years. Separate population groups, that have been addressees of services from various systems or companies or in various cities, cannot be summed and presented as a total.

Any interested party may rely on the financial and/or technical capacity of an affiliated company but not of any other third party. Deadline for submission of expressions of interest: 19 April 2013. The advisors of the Fund on this project are Eurobank Equities Investment Firm and HSBC Bank Plc.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.