Greece to sell only state lottery, building

A delay of a few months in Greece's privatisation drive means the near-bankrupt country will only be able to complete the sale of its state lottery firm and a building in Athens, its privatisation chief told Reuters on Wednesday.

That would mean the country falls well short of the more than 3 billion euros it had aimed to raise this year, with the privatisation of groups like natural gas company DEPA, gas grid operator DESFA, Hellenic Petroleum and betting firm OPAP being pushed into next year.

"There can be financial completion of only two projects this year — the state lottery and the IPC," Costas Mitropoulos, CEO of the agency told Reuters, citing "administrative delays".

Greece's new conservative-led government has made reviving the long-delayed privatisation drive a key part of its efforts to turn around the recession-hit economy, but has admitted delays stemming from repeat elections held this year.

The privatisation agency suspended operations in April when Greece held the first of two elections this year. The agency's chairman Yannis Koukiadis resigned after the second vote in June, further delaying the agency's work.

As part of its second bailout programme, Greece is due to raise 19 billion euros from privatisations by the end of 2015 and as much as 50 billion euros overall.