REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ATHENS -- Jermyn Street, an Arab-Turkish property fund, is to spend 400 million euros ($550 million) buying a luxury seaside hotel in Athens, the country's privatisation agency HRADF said on Tuesday.

The sale of the Astir Palace is part of debt-laden Greece's privatisation plan to pay down debt and clean up the balance sheets of its bailed-out banks.

Jermyn Street Real Estate Fund, which includes investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey's Dogus group, submitted the highest of three bids, HRADF said.

National Bank , Greece's biggest lender, will get 300 million euros of the purchase price with the remaining 100 million going to the government.

Tourism is the first industry to have recovered from Greece's recession with the country expecting a record number of visitors and tourist revenues this year.

Athens has raised about 2.6 billion euros in cash from privatisations since the country's international bailout in 2010. It aims to raise 24 billion euros by 2020.

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