Mustacea (JECTER): Our investments in concessions and PPPs in Southeast Europe have just begun

The starting signal for a new big circle of the Group in the fields of concessions and PPPs within and outside Greece, was given by the Director General for Business Development and Executive Member of the Board of Directors, Manos Moustakas, from the 7th Conference of Infrastructure and Transport – ITC 2024. “Having already placed strategically in a sector where we have the competitive advantage, given the verticalisation that the Group has and the ability of GEK TERNA to control every stage of the project, we are ready to claim worthily any investment in a major concession project auctioned in wider SEE Europe,” he said, adding that “since the capital fire force we have is multiple of the corresponding projects expected in our country, it is for granted that we are looking beyond Greece.” According to Mr Mustaka, GEK TERNA is making this leap towards the future now, which crystallises opportunities for investment in infrastructure in Greece and Southeast Europe, with reasonable returns. “We believe that this GEK TERNA development plan fully responds to what the international investment community now seeks: clear targeting, effective structure, verticalization with competitive advantages, specialized know-how in the study, financing, implementation and operation of large infrastructure projects, as well as sound fundamental, based on a strong fund, loan without reduction in the parent and predictable, stable and strong cash flows over decades.” Referring to the pride of the GEK TERNA Group in this area, Mr. Moustakas noted that, with the existing cash reserves of the parent company, the expected dividends from all projects that are or will be put into operation in the next few years and also the additional liquidity from the sale of TENA ENERGY, the Group’s total investment capacity exceeds EUR 3 billion as money that can be used for equity in investments. In view of the possibility of leverage through borrowing, this amount is multiplied and available for financing projects. Therefore, GEK TERNA is armored with an arsenal of important additional funds, exclusively for the claim of new major projects in infrastructure and concessions in Greece and abroad, since for all major projects in which the Group had already prevailed through international competitions (e.g. Attiki Street, Egnatia Street, New International Airport of Heraklion Crete, etc.) have already been secured, both the financial lines and the same participation. The Director-General for Business Development and Executive Member of GEK TERNA, however, also referred to the institutional framework of the country, commenting on features that “there are points that need improvement in the model of concessions and PPPs and which create – justified in my opinion – reservations”. More specifically, Mr Moustakas made particular reference to the fact that although the private sector was conceivably warned during the project preparation period, both about their maturity and the unequal and ineffective distribution of project responsibilities, these concerns were unfortunately not heard. “So we are all investors to have to take responsibility for issues that are practically out of our control sphere, such as keeping the schedule for study and construction, when at the same time in road projects there is no commitment from the State to network travel or to a specific timeframe for land disposal, or even water availability in the event of irrigation work,” said Mr. Mustafas. In addition, it referred to an imbalance between the economic data with which a project can be auctioned and the actual market conditions when the time of the competition came, giving as an example the forecasts for the availability payments, i.e. the maximum contribution made by the State, which have been made with cost data that from the time of drawing up the Agency’s pre-studies to the Competition have increased poorly, resulting in the project not being funded even at zero discount. “So, co-financed projects are beneficial and attractive, as long as they are prepared with the simple and tested logics that we have successfully used in the past, effectively using the Dialogue mechanism between candidates and contracting authorities to be mutually beneficial,” concluded Mr. Mustafas.