Belgium's Fluxys has dropped plans to acquire a stake in Greece's natural gas grid operator from Azerbaijan's state-owned energy company, the head of the Azeri company confirmed on Saturday. The Azeri company, SOCAR, agreed in 2013 to buy a 66 percent stake in Greece's state-run DESFA for 400 million euros ($455.5 million), but European Union antitrust concerns have delayed the transaction SOCAR had said it would sell about 17 percent of DESFA to a third party to address the EU's concerns once the acquisition was completed.
Greece's privatisation agency had said that Italy's Snam and Spain's Enagas were also interested in buying the stake from SOCAR. "Belgium company Fluxys said it was not interested in acquiring SOCAR's stake in DESFA," said Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of SOCAR. "Talks with Snam and Enagas continue." Earlier this week, an unnamed Greek official said that Enagas and European equity fund Marguerite were looking for a partner to bid for the stake because Fluxys dropped out.
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