Greece’s business landscape has changed as a result of a series of important agreements in the post-memorandum period characterized by a series of important agreements.
From emblematic acquisitions and decisive mergers to major investments and successful privatizations, helping the Greek economy, which is now attracting significant foreign capital.
And this has been repeatedly confirmed throughout the last few years, as evidenced by the list of indicative deals for the period 2018 – 2025:
• Ethniki Insurance: In 2020, National Bank agreed to sell 90.1% of Ethniki Insurance to the American CVC Capital for an enterprise value of 505 million euros. The fund has reached an agreement with Piraeus Bank for the transfer of this percentage (for a value of 600 million euros), with the final completion of the deal expected in the next period.
• UniCredit – Alpha Bank: The exit of the HFSF from the Greek systemic banks affected the sector. UniCredit seized the opportunity, acquiring a significant percentage of Alpha Bank’s share capital. In 2023, it initially bought 9%, while it now holds a stake of around 20%.
• Metlen – Fairfax: In 2022, the Canadian fund Fairfax decided to invest in Evangelos Mytilineos’ company, initially acquiring a 4.6% stake. Today, the corresponding percentage has increased to 8.34%, which means that Canadians constitute the second largest shareholder.
• Terna Energy: The acquisition of Terna Energy by Masdar in the second half of 2024 was the largest energy deal in Greece and one of the largest in Europe. The landmark deal valued the Greek company at 3.2 billion euros.
• Privatizations: Important deals emerged for the Greek economy from the privatizations held in the specific sector.
• Hellenic Bank: A few months ago, Eurobank managed to complete a major deal, acquiring the majority stake in Hellenic Bank and creating the largest financial group in Cyprus, in an investment worth 1.3 billion euros.
• Attica Bank: In the field of non-systemic banks, a major agreement for the return of Attica Bank has been reached. The merger deal with Pancreta Bank, combined with last year’s double IPO, have created a strong banking group, which may also set foot in Malta, thanks to the pending deal with HSBC Malta.
• Motor Oil – Ellaktor: One of the most successful “marriages” is also that between Motor Oil and Ellaktor. In addition to the participation of the former in the share register of the latter, there were also several individual deals (e.g. Anemos, Helector), which created additional value.
• Aktor Group: In the summer of 2022, the Exarchos – Bakos – Kaimenakis team entered the share register of Intrakat and brought a series of changes. The acquisition of Aktor Constructions and Aktor Concessions, combined with the deals in real estate and energy, have significantly upgraded the listed company, which seems to have changed course.
• New bank: Optima Bank was born in 2019 from the transformation of the Investment Bank, with capital from the Vardinogiannis Group. Over the years, it has managed to grow significantly, resulting in today’s assets of 6.2 billion euros.
• Tech-deals: The technology sector could not remain unaffected by business developments. Thus, during the last seven years, a series of important agreements took place, such as the sale deal of Singular Logic to Space Hellas and Epsilon Net, the entry of Olympia Group into Entersoft, the participation of National Bank in the share register of Epsilon Net, the acquisition of Byte and Intrasoft by Ideal and Netcompany respectively, the acquisition of Beta Cae by the American Cadence, as well as the absorption of Blue Stream by Ideal. We can also distinguish, on the one hand, the acquisition of Benroubi S.A. by Quest, and on the other hand, the sale of Astir Vitogiannis (Ideal) to Guala Closures.
• Vivartia: In 2020, the big deal in the food sector took place, with the American CVC acquiring Vivartia from MIG. Since then CVC has proceeded with several reorganizations.
• Wind: In 2021, United Group acquired Wind Hellas, which it then merged with Nova, creating a single provider.
• Insurance: Reorganizations also occurred in the insurance sector, in addition to those mentioned above with Ethniki Insurance. In 2022, Allianz acquired European Reliance, in 2021 Generali acquired AXA Insurance, while in 2024 the Intracom Group partnered with Evropa Insurance, creating Evropa Holdings.
• Lotteries: One of the big “bets” concerns Intralot’s mega-deal with Bally’s, which concerns an agreement worth 2.6 billion euros.
• Stoiximan – Novibet: The acquisition of 100% of Stoiximan by OPAP, which now controls 100% of the company, strengthening its leading position in the sports betting sector. There were also developments in Novibet, where the Czech Allwyn (main shareholder of OPAP) bought 51% of the share capital.
• Hospitals: Just a few months ago, the private healthcare sector was “shaken” by CVC’s decision to sell 60% of Hellenic Healthcare Group to the Arab Pure Health. This is a deal with a corporate value of 2.3 billion euros, which concerns the hospitals Hygeia, Metropolitan, Mitera, Leto, Creta InterClinic, City Hospital, Apollonius, etc.
• Avramar: Finally, in the field of fish farming, developments are “running” with a focus on Avramar, which in previous years was the company that brought together the largest “players” in the domestic sector.
