A French company has agreed to buy a significant stake in the Great Sea Interconnector project, media reports said on Thursday.

Bloomberg broke the story, naming the company as Meridiam SAS, a French infrastructure investor.

The news outlet said Meridiam agreed to buy a 49.9 per cent stake in the €1.9 billion interconnector project. Greece’s Independent Transmission System Operator – also known by its Greek initials as Admie – will retain 50.1 per cent.

Bloomberg was citing people familiar with the deal. They asked not to be named as the agreement had not been made public yet.

The agreement also allows for the possibility of additional investors joining in the future, the sources said. 

Both Admie and Meridiam declined comment.

Meridiam would invest in the implementing body for the project – a special-purpose company likewise called Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), a subsidiary of Admie.

Bloomberg’s sources said that as part of the agreement, GSI’s board of directors will initially consist of 11 members, six to be appointed by Admie, and the remaining five by Meridiam.

The Great Sea Interconnector project is a subsea power cable linking Cyprus to Greece. It will integrate Cyprus, the last non-interconnected European Union member, into the bloc’s transmission system.

Over 1,200 kilometres of high-voltage cables will be laid at depths of as much as 3,000 meters.

Meridiam is a global investor and asset manager based in Paris specialised in developing, financing and managing long-term public infrastructure projects. It has $20 billion in assets under management.

The interconnector project has secured EU funding to the tune of €657 million via the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’.

Earlier, the Cyprus government had stated it was considering acquiring a direct stake in the project. Officials here said the Cypriot state could invest up to €100 million and become a minority shareholder in GSI.

The government had sought the feedback of consultancy firms to help it decide whether to buy into the project. Only this week, the findings of two foreign consultancies got leaked to the media – neither report was positive.

The Great Sea Interconnector project had previously been known as the EuroAsia Interconnector – taking its name after a Cypriot company of the same name. The Cypriot company dropped out of the project in October 2023 after rumblings it had run into financing troubles.