Athens Investment Summit Wrap-up

By George Hazapis, International Strategic Projects; Correspondent in Athens for Global Chamber

The Athens Investment Summit took place in Athens’ historic Grande Bretagne Hotel on Friday, 26 February 2016. The Summit had great organizers, sponsors, supporters, media sponsors and conference finance. It was a well attended event that focused on Greece and its possibilities, opportunities and risks. It had prominent Greek and international experts who spoke on investment, legal, business banking, international financial institutions, real-estate foci areas.

The overall tone of the event was apolitical and business centered. Among the topics were Greece and the overall investment climate, whether Greece would be the next turn-around story, the prospects for recovery, a politico-economic review, the Greek structural adjustment and privatization programs, policy proposals to encourage large scale investments, banking recapitalization and procedures and incentives for strategic investments in Greece.

The second session focused on the finance of investments in Greece with speakers from a prominent international law firm, the European Investment Bank(EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), venture capital and angel investors.

The afternoon sessions were thematic sessions on tourism investments, property investments, industry and processing, start-ups and technology funding, European Union Funding, investment structuring in Cyprus. They concluded with lessons learned from strategic investments in Greece.

It was a positive networking event for people who do business in Greece, along with international trend setters who wanted to hear and speak objectively on the Greek investment climate in contrast to the universally negative news on Greece.

The speakers and participants were innovative individuals who want to change reality and presented the current situation of Greece from a practitioner viewpoint.

There were four key discussions with the event.

• Current situation and sources of financing. A politically neutral, unvarnished overview.
• Sources of investment finance, institution building, investments taking place, EBRD, private equity, and requirements.
• Thematic presentations on agriculture, tourism, investment and technology starts-ups, real-estate, logistics, ICT, life sciences, cultural and creative industries.
• Review of strategic investments in Greece such as in renewable energy.

There are many reasons to invest in Greece despite negative externalities such as the refugee inflows and government resistance and complexity. Only the state can manage strategic assets, ie. ports, utilities.

Challenging issue areas are:

• Key and strategic assets and legal restrictions, obstacles, transparency and the bidding process.
• Best practices in privatization and risks.
• Industrial policy proposals to encourage large scale investments and whether an investment tsunami is expected.
• Tax policy, bureaucracy.
• An investment plan for Europe, a game changer.

Investment finance looks at the environment, infrastructure, innovation and SMEs. Greece has the human capital and this is conducive to investing in Greece. If we look at EIB finance there is direct and indirect finance with mezzanine financing varying between 7.5 million to 25 million Euros for SMEs with a streamlined approval process and due diligence with considerable look at the business model and structure. EIB finance bears a signaling effect and a quality label, multi-sector coverage with innovation and a growth scale.

In summary, Greece offers investment opportunities in a changing European, and international investment climate with investment advisory and post-investment support.

Private sector development is taking off across different sectors, restoring investor confidence. The systemic banks through the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) support, restore banking confidence and serve as a catalyst to mobilize investors. The IFC’s long-term investment portfolio with Greek sponsors is making notable contributions to development. The EBRD in conjunction with the private sector invests in projects changing people’s lives and environments by fostering innovation and building a sustainable open market economy, further mobilizing foreign direct investment.

This brief overview doesn't do justice to describe the high caliber speakers, the business cases discussed and the numerous insights.

Encouragingly there was a positive tone on the investment climate in Greece despite the many challenges.

There are people on the ground in Greece who are trying to change regional thinking and bring about the needed reforms to create a pro-business environment.

We can also hope that the Greek-American business community (all sectors) will be more involved to bring real change to Greece.

For more on the summit, visit Athens Investment Summit 2016 HERE.