Eurozone Financial Crisis

Greece financial crisis  8h Greece won't meet IMF repayments in June, interior minister says - @MarketWatch Read more on marketwatch.com  Greece financial crisis  15h Greece will not make a debt repayment to the IMF due next month as it does not have the money, interior minister says - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  1d European Central Bank President Mario Draghi tells Rome conference that indebted countries must act quickly on recommended reforms, as, 'The current situation in the euro area demonstrates that this delay could be dangerous' - @ReutersBiz Read more on reuters.com Get the app Like BreakingNews.com? Download our free app and get faster updates, create custom news alerts and see breaking news near your location, wherever you go. Read more on apps.fm  Greece financial crisis  3d Greece, creditors not in talks on extending bailout, European Commission says - @ReutersBiz Read more on reuters.com  Greece financial crisis  4d Germany's finance minister says he can't repeat 2012 assurance Greece won't default - @WSJbreakingnews Read more on www.wsj.com  Greece financial crisis  5d Eurogroup head Dijsselbloem says deal not likely on Greece to be reached this week - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  9d Greek prime minister says wants to ensure there is no threat to paying wages and pensions, will reach deal with lenders - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  9d Greece pays 500 million euros-worth of public sector wages to avert fresh economic crisis - @guardian Read more on theguardian.com  Greece financial crisis  10d IMF repeats it is flexible in Greece talks as long as program objectives met; working intensely to get deal soon, spokesman says - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  10d Bundesbank chief criticizes emergency loans for Greece - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  10d Greek investment deal from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development worth up to 500 million euros a year, Greek Finance Ministry says - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  10d Greece unblocks Piraeus port sale, invites binding bids - @Reuters Piraeus Port Authority SA - Greece unblocks Piraeus port sale, invites binding bids (Thu, May 14) - Greece considers selling ports to reach deal with EU/IMF: government source (Wed, Apr 29) - UPDATE 1-Greece considers selling ports to reach deal with EU/IMF - government source (Wed, Apr 29) - UPDATE 4-Greece sends updated reforms, pledges to pay IMF on time (Wed, Apr 1) - UPDATE 1-Templeton's Mobius says Greece to stay in euro, shares are cheap (Tue, Mar 31) - In u-turn, Greece will sell Piraeus Port stake in weeks - Xinhua (Sat, Mar 28) - Greece will not cancel completed privatisations: government source (Thu, Feb 5) - Greece will not cancel completed privatisations- govt source (Thu, Feb 5) - Exclusive: Greece opposes Canadian gold mine, to scrap gas utility sale (Fri, Jan 30) - Greek PM Tsipras freezes privatisations, markets tumble (Wed, Jan 28) - UPDATE 5-Greek PM Tsipras freezes privatisations, markets tumble (Wed, Jan 28) - Renewed plunge in Greek banks hits European shares (Wed, Jan 28) - Factbox: Greece's privatization deals in doubt after leftist victory (Wed, Jan 28) - Another slump in Greek stocks holds back European shares (Wed, Jan 28) - Greek banks extend slide to peg back European shares (Wed, Jan 28) - Europe stocks dip; Greek shares extend retreat (Wed, Jan 28) - Greek shares hit by privatisation freeze (Wed, Jan 28) - Greek PM Tsipras names anti-austerity cabinet, port sale halted (Tue, Jan 27) - UPDATE 3-Greek PM Tsipras names anti-austerity cabinet, port sale halted (Tue, Jan 27) ============ Greece unblocks Piraeus port sale, invites binding bids Thu, May 14 09:49 AM EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has asked three firms to submit binding bids by September for a majority stake in the country's biggest port, Piraeus (OLPr.AT), a senior privatization official told Reuters on Thursday, unblocking a major asset sale. Greece had shorlisted China's Cosco Group [COSCO.UL] and four other groups for a 67 percent stake in Piraeus Port (OLPr.AT) last year but the sale was halted after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's leftist government came to power this year. Pressing ahead on the sale is expected to be one of the major concessions offered by Tsipras to EU and IMF lenders during ongoing talks to secure aid. Athens late on Wednesday wrote to investors with an amended invitation to bid for 51 percent rather than the previous 67 percent stake, the official said. Only three of the five initial bidders - Cosco, Dutch container terminal operator APM Terminals (MAERSKb.CO), and Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services (ICT.PS) - are still interested in the port, the official said. "It will be for 51 percent with an option to reach 67 percent in five years if they invest 300 million euros," he said. "We want to name the winner at the end of September or early October." The new leftist-led government is trying to renegotiate a 240-billion-euro bailout and has said it will review asset sales, but wants the state to remain involved in any privatizations. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, editing by Deepa Babington/Jeremy Gaunt) ================ Exclusive: Greece opposes Canadian gold mine, to scrap gas utility sale Fri, Jan 30 15:16 PM EST By Angeliki Koutantou ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's new left-wing government will cancel plans to sell the state natural gas utility and is firmly opposed to a Canadian-run gold mine that is among the biggest foreign investment projects in the country, the energy minister told Reuters. The comments on Friday by Panagiotis Lafazanis, who represents the more radical wing of the ruling Syriza party, further reinforces early signs that the government is sticking to campaign pledges that have chilled investment and unnerved financial markets. The Skouries gold mine operated by Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold Corp. (ELD.TO) in northern Greece was the flagship project of the last government's foreign investment drive and considered a test case that would reveal whether Greece could protect foreign investors despite local opposition. "We are absolutely against it and we will examine our next moves on it," Lafazanis, a 63-year-old former Communist, told Reuters at his new ministerial office. He declined to say if the government would try to block the project from going ahead. Shares of Eldorado Gold tumbled to a six-year low on Friday and were trading down 18.5 percent on Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company owns 95 percent of the Greek venture. “We have our permits, so we’re legally entitled to continue our operations and development projects there. So for us, it’s business as usual at this point,” said Krista Muhr, vice president of Eldorado's investor relations, in response to the report. “I don’t think we would continue investing money into Greece if we weren’t confident,” she added. The firm said last week that it would spend about $200 million this year to develop Skouries mine, and expected to complete construction in late 2016. The project is among the biggest foreign investments in Greece since the country sank into a debt crisis in 2010, with Eldorado taking over the mine in 2012 and promising to invest $1 billion over five years. But it has been beset by controversy and violent local protests for years and Syriza had criticized the environment impact of the project on the pristine Halkidiki peninsula landscape of beaches and forest surrounding it. The new minister was even more categorical on gas utility DEPA, saying the planned sale of a 65 percent stake would be scrapped. The previous government had planned to accelerate the privatization as part of commitments under Greece's 240-billion-euro ($271 billion) bailout from international lenders, after an initial attempt to sell to Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) in 2013 failed. "In no way will we privatize gas utility DEPA and sell it to anyone, no matter who the interested party is," Lafazanis said. The latest comments add to plans already outlined by the new government to freeze sales of stakes held by the state in the country's biggest port Piraeus Port (OLPr.AT), its main power utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) (DEHr.AT), oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum (HEPr.AT) and power grid operator ADMIE. POWER Greece has raised 3.1 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from privatizations since it was first bailed out five years ago by the EU and International Monetary Fund, far short of an original target of about 22 billion euros by 2013. Lafazanis also said his government would move fast to revoke a law that allowed the state to spin off power utility PPC and which opened the way for the sale of 30 percent of its production capacity to investors. Under the previous government, Greece - which holds a 51 percent stake in PPC - had also planned to sell a further 17 percent stake in PPC in 2016. "Once parliament resumes, we will table the relevant bill and the spin-off will be canceled. We will not proceed with any further privatization," he said. Greek businesses and households have been hit by four years of austerity and Lafazanis said the new government would seek to relieve them by cutting their electricity bills. "Our concern is how PPC can operate more effectively so that power prices paid by businesses and households are reduced," he said. But Lafazanis struck a more moderate tone on the 400-million-euro sale of Greek natural gas grid operator DESFA to Azerbaijan's state oil firm SOCAR, a deal agreed in 2013. He said the government would act on the project only after the European Commission, which is investigating whether the deal violated competition rule, makes it decision later this year. "We will wait for the EU Competition Commission's decision and then we will decide our own moves," he said. (Writing by Deepa Babington; Additional reporting by Susan Taylor and John Tilak in Toronto; Editing by Pravin Char, Bernard Orr) =====  Greece financial crisis  12d IMF says Greece made principal payment to funds, declines to provide details of transaction - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  13d Eurozone countries: progress made with Greece over bailout but more time and effort needed - @AP End of alert  Greece financial crisis  13d Eurogroup to issue statement encouraging Greece to accelerate debt talks - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  13d German Finance Minister Schaeuble says it could be helpful for Greek government to hold referendum on debt deal - @Reuters End of alert  Greece financial crisis  19d German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble 'skeptical' of deal with Greece by Monday - @ekathimerini Read more on ekathimerini.com  Greece financial crisis  19d Greece steps up diplomacy with eurozone partners to avert cash crunch - @Reuters Read more on reuters.com  European Union  19d European Commission predicting 1.5% growth for the eurozone in 2015, up 0.2% from the previous forecast in February - @AP End of alert  Greece financial crisis  19d European Commission slashes Greek 2015 GDP forecasts from 2.5% to 0.5% - @CNBCWorld