FreeSeas Inc fka FREEF

[bigtimetrader]

China betting huge on Greek ports! Buying Greek shipping companies is their next move!

The China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (Cosco) took over 51 percent of the Greek state-owned Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) on August 10, making it the controlling shareholder. Under the deal, Cosco has management and operation rights to run the PPA until 2052.
The deal was signed at the beginning of April and was rubber stamped by Greece’s Syriza-controlled parliament at the end of June. The sale is part of the wider privatisation programme that has been imposed on Greece by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in order to raise funds towards the repayment of the country’s vast mountain of debt.
Following its takeover of the PPA, Cosco is reportedly also interested in purchasing the management rights of the port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. The country’s second largest port after Piraeus, Thessaloniki is also slated for privatisation.
Cosco paid €280.5 million to secure the 51 percent stake in the Piraeus port. As part of the deal, in five years’ time it will be able to acquire a further 16 percent stake for €88 billion—once it has completed investments worth €300 million. These include expanding the infrastructure of the cruise port, upgrading the shipyard repair zone and the construction of a multi-story garage in the RO-RO (or “roll-on, roll-off”) vessel port.
Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) head Stergios Pitsiorlas described the Piraeus deal as “a very important moment.” Speaking to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, he said, “The cooperation at Piraeus port is not just an economic collaboration but has strategic characteristics. Greece, via the Piraeus port, can indeed become China’s gateway into Europe to the benefit of China and Greece.”

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/09/02/gree-s02.html

FREEF had numerous operations through Piraeus in the past and is a prime candidate for Chinese acquistion.