Minoan Group, developers of the somewhat controversial Itanos Gaia Resort, has announced the intention to sell off a significant share of the company caused a 30+ per cent boost in shares as of yesterday. In the headlines the last few years over an Eastern Crete seaside development, the AIM-listed group also reported that it has signed an exclusivity agreement with the preferred buyer of its travel and leisure business.
News of the sale means Minoan Group will be free to concentrate on the Itanos Gaia project, which last June was given final planning consent after more than a decade of delays. The group also announced having appointed a new corporate advisor with a better understanding of Greece to assist in the process. In a trading update, Minoan said:
“The company has recently received an approach from a credible party which has expressed an interest in acquiring a significant stake in the project. Discussions are at an early stage and the company will provide shareholders with an update in due course.”
In advance of publishing its full-year results later this month, MINOAN said trading for the travel and leisure division for the first fiscal quarter was up 15 per cent. Just last December, the company abandoned plans to raise £1 million through a broker offer after it failed to generate enough interest from investors.
The group said yesterday that with the current share price offering a 70% discount on its last published net asset value of £43m debt funding was preferable to a share issue for funding.
Valued at some 267 million euros, the luxury five-star Itanos Gaia Resort will transform the Cavo Sidero peninsula, in Northeastern Crete, in the prefecture of Lasithi.