By Angeliki Koutantou
ATHENS, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Greece's Lamda Development
LMDr.AT hopes to secure all the necessary licences to start a
huge development of luxury homes and offices at a disused
airport site in Athens early next year, its top executive said
on Thursday.
The former Hellenikon airport, a sprawling site of disused
runways, terminals and venues used for the Athens 2004 Olympics,
has been abandoned for almost two decades.
Lamda plans to turn it into a complex of luxury homes,
hotels, offices, a yachting marina and a casino at a total cost
of 8 billion euros ($8.8 billion), aiming to attract thousands
more tourists and investors to the Greek capital.
The project, part of a post-bailout agreement between Greece
and its lenders, has faced several hurdles in recent years. But
the newly elected Conservative government has expedited plans,
including a tender for a casino resort at the site.
"I believe when we go in, and this I think will happen in
January - in any case, early next year - all permitting will be
completed. There will be no risk in terms of licensing," Lamda's
Chief Executive Officer Odisseas Athanasiou told shareholders,
as they met to vote on an equity issue of up to 650 million
euros to fund part of the investment.
NOT JUST A CASH CALL
Lamda announced the cash call last month, saying China's
Fosun 0656.HK and Arab funds had withdrawn interest in the
project and it would undertake the development on its own due to
the complexity and strict timetable.
Its biggest shareholder, the Latsis family, has committed to
fully exercise its preemptive rights over the share sale and
underwrite any unsubscribed shares.
Greece's biggest air carrier Aegean Airlines AGNr.AT also
said this week it would buy a 1.6% stake in Lamda and
participate in the cash call.
"I am inviting you to take part not in a simple share
capital increase but in the implementation of a project which we
will be all proud of," Athanasiou said.
Lamda, which first outlined the investment plan in 2013,
expects to spend about 2 billion euros in the first five years
of an estimated 25-year construction phase to build two
skyscrapers of offices and a hotel, about 800 residences and a
park, Athanasiou said.
"Investment risk for the first five years is covered," he
said, adding there had been strong foreign interest in the
residences, of which there are eventually expected to be about
10,000.
Along with issuing new shares, Lamda expects to secure 400
million euros from property sales, about 800 million from banks
loans and 150 million from issuing debt to reach that sum, he
added.
Greece last week received two bids for the 1 billion euro
casino resort within Hellenikon: one from U.S. casino operator
Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment partnered with Greek contractor
GEK Terna, and another from Hard Rock International.
($1 = 0.9075 euros)