By G. Hatziilidis
Northern Greece-based Dimera Group, the investment vehicle managed by Russian-Greek businessman Ivan Savvidis, is ready to invest up to 250 million euros in the country over the coming years, its managing director stated on Friday from Thessaloniki.
Dimera Group executive Arthur Davidyan made the statement from the podium of the Thessaloniki Summit.
According to the Dimera managing director, the group has already invested 130 million euros in Greece, acquiring the PAOK Thessaloniki professional football team, the Thrace-based cigarette producer SEKAP, the iconic seafront Macedonia Pallas hotel in Thessaloniki, a large tract of land in Halkidiki prefecture for a future resort, and most recently, one of only four national broadcast licenses auctioned off by the government last month. Davidyan said 20.5 million euros, the first installment of Dimera’s winning bid, has already been paid to the state.
He pointed to tourism, energy, transports and agro-industry as other sectors that pique the group’s interest.
Finally, he emphasized to an audience of mostly business people that Dimera’s total investment in crisis-plagued Greece could be double or triple the current figure if a more investment-friendly environment existed in the country.
Meanwhile, a representatives from another major investor in northern Greece, and probably among the top three in the country in terms of value, Hellas Gold, said 700 million euros has already been pumped into the company’s Cassandra mines. The total investment, according to Hellas Gold, will exceed one billion euros and possibly reach 1.2 billion euros.
Hellas Gold is a subsidiary of Canadian mining giant Eldorado Gold.
According to Hellas Gold vice-president Michalis Theodorakopoulos, the company’s operations over the next 20 years will contribute three billion euros in salaries and taxes to the state, with another 2.5 billion euros generated for local governments and suppliers.
Theodorakopoulos also referred directly to the massive opposition faced by the investment, especially over its operations at its Skouries site, saying the company has won 16 consecutive rulings from Greece’s Council of State, the highest administrative court in the country.
“The biggest investment in northern Greece, despite the difficulties it faced, is in full development,” he stressed.
“N” was the communications sponsor for the business conference.
