The opening bell for today’s session of the Athens Stock Exchange was rung by the chairman and CEO of Safe Bulkers, Polys Hatzioannou, marking the start of trading in the company’s shares on the main market of Euronext Athens, as part of the shipping company’s dual listing.
This marks the first listing of a shipping company’s shares on the Athens Stock Exchange, while it should be noted that the company’s shares will continue to be traded simultaneously on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), where they are already listed.
The CEO of the Athens Exchange Group, Yiannos Kontopoulos, described the development as a historic milestone for the Greek capital market, as well as a particularly strong message regarding the role Athens can and must play as an international center for shipping finance and investment activity.
For his part, Mr. Hatzioannou stated that this marks a “new beginning for Greek shipping on the Athens Stock Exchange.”
“I would like to thank Piraeus Bank, our lawyers, and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission for their cooperation over the past few months in establishing the institutional framework, one that will attract other major Greek shipping companies to list on the Athens Stock Exchange as well. I am confident that this will begin to take shape very soon,” he added.