The new CEO of the company manufacturing the cable for the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) insisted on Thursday that the project is still live and that there is “no Plan B” for the cable built so far.
The GSI is a mooted subsea cable linking the electricity grids of Cyprus and Greece.
In a conference call with analysts discussing the company’s Q3 earnings, Nexans CEO Julien Hueber said:
“Regarding the GSI project, as I said, the project is ongoing. Extremely good relationship and collaborative work with Ipto, our customer. For us, there is no plan B.
“There is only one plan A, which is keep going and working with our customer to deliver this project.”
The Ipto is Greece’s independent power transmission operator – or Admie by its Greek acronym.
The website Investing.com posted the full transcript of the conference call.
Hueber confirmed that to date Nexans have received €250 million in payments in different tranches.
In the Q&A with analysts, the CEO said the company is “working very closely with Ipto in a very, let’s say, collaborative way.”
He added: “We are in discussion at this moment in terms of the next steps of this project, and the milestone of payment is part of it. I cannot disclose anything, but that’s, of course, as you can imagine, a part of our discussion. There is also ongoing discussion on the political side as well regarding the GSI.”
Answering a journalist’s remark that the Greece-Cyprus interconnector might be cancelled, Hueber said:
“First of all, the project is not canceled. We are still working on it. There are extremely close discussions on the relationship with our customers. There are ongoing discussions on the political side and supported by the European Commission.
“I mean, we do not see that as a risk. We’ll come back on that, of course, when we’ll have some more, let’s say, information to share. This project is not canceled so far.”
In the same call, Vincent Dessale, Senior Executive at Nexans, noted that “the amount of this project is €1.4 billion” – alluding to the cost of the cable itself. Of this, the company has so far received €250 million from Admie.
Cyprus has so far withheld a €25 million payment to Greece’s Admie for the year 2025, causing some friction between Nicosia and Athens.
Admie, the project promoter for the GSI, is 51 per cent owned by the Greek state.
Last week the energy ministers of Cyprus and Greece held a teleconference with the EU energy commissioner to discuss the matter.
The two ministries later released a joint statement, saying the two governments continue to collaborate “in a spirit of unity and mutual trust”.
The EU has a stake in the €1.9 billion GSI project, having pledged €657 million in grants.
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