According to Bloomberg, Greece has held talks with Qatar over the sale of the Astir Palace in a deal that would mark the first outright sale of a property in the country through the government’s 50 billion-euro ($67 billion) asset disposal program, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Representatives of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co., part of the Persian Gulf country’s sovereign-wealth fund, discussed the sale with Greek officials and the resort’s owners when Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited Doha last month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Astir Palace Hotel SA (ASTIR), the public company that owns the resort, has a market value of 285 million euros.

Greece is striving to attract foreign investment as the economy faces its sixth straight year of contraction and an unemployment rate that reached 27 percent in November. In 1993 and 2009 Astir Palace in Athens hosted the Bilderberg conference, an invitation-only annual gathering of European and American business and political leaders named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting took place in 1954.

The National Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which own the property, put out an international public tender on Jan. 16. The 120,000 square-meter (1.3 million square-foot) complex includes three hotels, private beaches and 58 bungalows on the Vouliagmeni peninsula 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Venizelos International Airport.

Celebrity Guests

Since its opening in the 1960s, the resort’s guests have included Jackie Onassis, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra, according to its website.

Spokesmen for the National Bank of Greece (TELL), and the state privatization fund declined to comment on the matter. Qatari Diar didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Greece’s plan to reduce public debt by selling assets is central to the country’s efforts to secure further financing from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The disposal program, which also includes stakes in utilities and mining companies, was delayed by months of negotiations over the country’s debt restructuring last year and two general elections that threatened Greece’s membership in the euro.

The Greek divestment plan has brought in 1.8 billion euros so far. NCH Capital Inc., a New-York based private-equity firm, will invest 100 million euros to develop a strip of land on the Greek Island of Corfu under a 99-year concession, the fund said in January. It plans to announce a bidder for a larger project on the island of Rhodes in the next several months.

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 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-21/qatar-said-to-discuss-purchase-of-resort-from-greek-state.html