Leading foreigners investors put in Stock Exchange of Athens and a new generation of investors, more “quality” and long-term, made for Greek properties, after the recovery of the investment grade.
Of course, even in the midst of the crisis, there are brave investors who see opportunities in the Athens Stock Exchange market. First and best is the mega-investor John Paulson, who in 2013 started investing in Greek banks, believing that sooner or later Greece will return to the page.
At the same time, Mark Mobius of Templeton, the manager of the largest long-term emerging market mutual fund asset, was in Greece in the $815 billion purchase of Greek stocks, saying that this is the best time to invest in Greece. The so-called “guru” of emerging markets here in 1987 and Sophokleus achieved the second best performance worldwide.
Since then there have been ups and downs. Greece has regained the investment grade and the confidence of the markets, the fiscal is on a good track, the growth rates are many of those of the EU and the banks have changed … book.
The leading names of the international investment community quickly placed themselves in the placements of Ethniki, Piraeus, in the IPO of Athens International Airport, as well as in the placements of major listed companies, such as Metlen, Jumbo and GEK TERNA.
Major investment houses such as Fidelity, Capital Group, Blackrock, Lazard, Norges, Allianz, Wellington, GIC (sovereign fund of Singapore), the Dutch Romerco and the American IRWS participated in the placements of Ethniki and Piraeus. Helikon Investments as well as GIC and Fiera Capital.
The “thirst” of international investors for Greek properties has increased significantly after the recovery of investment grade. A fact that can be seen in the large offers for Greek properties, which approach 120 billion euros, in 2024.
Offers for government bond issues so far, within 2024, together with reissues, amount to 74 billion euros.
Systemic banks in the same period collected offers of around 37 billion euros through the disinvestment process, but also through bond issues. Banks through the disinvestment of the HFSF by Piraeus and National Bank have attracted total offers of 17 billion euros, while the four systemic banks since the beginning of 2024 have collected offers of 20.8 billion euros from bond issue.
In 2024, the stock market will take from offers that exceed 30 billion about 3.3 billion euros.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the so-called Government Pension Fund Global, one of the world’s largest investors that recently announced a third quarter profit of $76.3 billion, has a significant presence in the Greek stock market and recently stated that it was placed on. his target is PPC stock.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, with firepower of around 1.7 trillion. dollars, has already invested in 36 listed on the Athens Stock Exchange and invested about 770 million dollars.
The ten largest assets based on holding value are Eurobank, Ethniki, Piraeus, Metlen, Jumbo, Motor Oil, GEK TERNA, OPAP, Alpha Bank and OTE.
A few days ago, GA Exarchou, CEO of Intrakat Group – AKTOR and partner of Thrivest Holdings, stated that he was surprised by the expression of investment interest in participating in the capital increase of Attica bank by the Canadian fund Fiera Capital. , which manages 158 billion Canadian dollars and has been placed in National, Piraeus and Cyprus.
According to the latest HEXA data on the largest listed companies, the major foreign investors holding more than 5% of the share capital are as follows:
Alpha Bank: Unicredit with 9.6% and Peggeborgh Invest BV with 5.2%
Eurobank: Fairfax Financial Group with 33.47%, The Capital Group with 5.14% and Helikon Investments with 5.08%.
National: The Capital Group with 5.06%
Piraeus: John Paulson with 18.62%
Jumbo: FMR LLC with 9.99% and The Capital Group with 5.05%
Metlen: Fairfax with 6.43%
Sarantis: FMR LLC with 10.45%
PPC: CVC Capital Partners with 10% and Helikon Investments with 6.97%
EYDAP: John Paulson with 9.99%
Elector: Peggeborgh Invest BV with 48.16%, Atlas NV with 9.798%