High-level talks on Cyprus’s potential investment in the Greece-Cyprus electrical interconnector project ended without agreement in Athens yesterday, as concerns over legal aspects of the deal remain unresolved.
The meeting, held at Greek Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis’s office with his Cypriot counterpart George Papanastasiou and Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki, focused on Cyprus’s participation in the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) investment fund.
No formal announcements followed the extensive discussions, which were also attended by representatives from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s office and Greece’s power grid operator IPTO.
Skylakakis is expected to respond in the coming days to a detailed letter from Papanastasiou outlining serious concerns raised in a due diligence report by U.S. law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt and Mosle LLP.
Sources say Cyprus has made it clear it will not proceed with its planned 100 million euro investment in GSI unless substantial changes are made to address the legal concerns.
The American law firm’s findings, which are supported by the Cypriot government, challenge several aspects of ITPO’s concession agreement currently awaiting regulatory approval.
The situation is further complicated by ongoing talks between IPTO and French investment fund Meridiam about joining GSI’s shareholding structure, raising questions about how different stakeholders’ interests will be reconciled.
Industry observers suggest the negotiations may need to expand beyond the current bilateral framework to address all potential investors’ concerns, including those of UAE’s TAQA fund, which has also expressed interest in the project.
