The first sale of Greek public assets, to meet the terms of the bail-out programme, is about to go ahead with a German company set to take control of Greece’s 14 regional airports.

The German company, Fraport, won the bid to buy the rights to operate the 14 regional airports, currently owned by the Greek state, in a deal worth 1.2 billion euros for a period of 40 years with an option of a further 10 years.

This is the first sale of Greek state assets which will go towards the privatisation fund of 50 billion euros, half of which will go to the recapitalisation of the Greek banks. The funds from the privatisation programme will be overseen by the Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund).

Fraport is among the world’s leading groups of companies in the international airport business. The company operates Frankfurt airport, one of the world’s most important air transportation hubs. Frankfurt airport is Germany’s largest employment complex at a single location with more than 500 companies employing over 80,000 workers.

Fraport has a turnover of 2.4 billion euros and had a profit of 252 million euros in 2014. It is active in four continents including operating airports in China, India and Russia