BEKIRIS: In the end, neither his long-standing friendship nor his godparent ties with the prime minister were enough to prevent the departure of Michalis Bekiris, a fresh and serious blow to the government.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s close associate announced yesterday that he would “temporarily step aside” from his duties as director of the prime minister’s office in Parliament until the case has been clarified by the courts, following a series of revelations by Kostas Vaxevanis’s Documento.
The case began with a property in Patras. According to the contracts cited by the newspaper, Mr Bekiris and his wife bought an apartment of about 141 sq m in 2025 for €194,352, while other apartments in the same building were reportedly sold for between €360,000 and €425,000.
He said the price had been agreed back in 2023, before construction of the building began, citing a private agreement and another transaction at a comparable price.
However, he did not make the agreement public, while the wide price discrepancies continue to raise questions.
BEKIRIS II: Further revelations concerned his employment status. Although he was presented as director of the prime minister’s offices in Parliament and Macedonia, no appointment decree for him could be found in the Government Gazette.
The explanation was that he had, apparently, been providing his services “voluntarily”!
But volunteering in a prime minister’s office is not quite the same as volunteering for a charity.
When someone is effectively performing managerial duties, legitimate questions arise about their institutional status, responsibilities, accountability and obligations concerning their declaration of assets.
Meanwhile, his university studies in France, mentioned in an old CV without specifying the university, were also called into question.
He, of course, rejects the allegations as false and defamatory, while the Maximos Mansion chose to refer people to Bekiris’s explanations and the courts, rather than settle the institutional questions with specific evidence. No degree has been made public.
Politically, that is, to say the least, highly unusual—especially when one of the prime minister’s closest associates is ultimately forced to leave.
His assurance that his departure is “temporary” carries little weight at this stage, with the election only a few months away. Mr Bekiris has said he will be “by Kyriakos’s side”.
The most important question, however, is not why Bekiris left. That is fairly easy to understand.
It is how the prime minister’s office operated for so many years with a director who said he was... a volunteer, without an appointment decree in the Government Gazette and, according to the allegations, without an obligation to file a declaration of assets.
OPPOSITION: The “temporary departure” of Michalis Bekiris from his post as director of the Prime Minister’s Office in Parliament—where, according to the government spokesman, he worked as a “volunteer”—did not go without caustic comment from the opposition. It attributed the move to revelations by Documento that no appointment decree for him had been published in the Government Gazette because he lacked the qualifications required for such a key post.
But Theoni Koufonikolakou, a representative of ELAS, offered another perspective on the “temporary departure”, which hit like a bomb: “Is the timing of this departure a coincidence? Or is Bekiris’s resignation connected to another murky case, that of Mr Liolios?” she asked.
The column understands that the question was not asked by chance, and it may even prove rhetorical. For many days—or rather weeks—whispers had been circulating about the heightened interest Mr Bekiris was showing in Mr Liolios’s presidency of EOK.
So the fact that for a month Mr Bekiris had shown no sign of being rattled by allegations about his position at the prime minister’s office in Parliament, only to decide suddenly yesterday to “temporarily step aside” (?) from the post, fuelled those whispers.
Ms Koufonikolakou said: “ELAS will continue to demand answers until the whole story is revealed and all those responsible are held to account.”
That means the question of a possible Bekiris-Liolios link remains open—at least for the party of Alexis Tsipras.
KAMMENOS: There has been much debate lately about the far right and who represents it. Panos Kammenos has weighed in repeatedly over the past 24 hours:
“Nikos Androulakis came out and called me far right, when he formed a coalition government with the leader of EPEN’s youth wing and ministers from LAOS. I am a centre-right politician who has held the same views for 30 years,” the leader of the Independent Greeks said.
He also rejects the far right—naming Velopoulos and Latinopoulou—as a potential coalition partner for New Democracy after the election, though that does not mean he will… allow PASOK to return to power.
“After the election I will become active to unite forces that could form a strong government and prevent the country from being handed over to PASOK,” he said, while also proposing Maria Karystianou for justice minister.
He also attacked Antonis Samaras once again, accusing him of wanting to do what he did in 1993 “for personal reasons”.
That position, it must be said, suits the government, giving it an informal ally in its battle with the Messinian.
GOVERNMENT: “It’s not what you think,” government figures are effectively saying about the convergence between the two former prime ministers on a range of issues—above all, national affairs—as highlighted in this column yesterday.
“Mr Karamanlis speaks differently from Mr Samaras. Mr Karamanlis has not crossed the line; he is expressing his opinion, and there is no question of a red line. He is not saying, ‘the government should fall and Mr Gerapetritis is making concessions’. But that is one issue, and ‘I will form a party’ is another,” Makis Voridis said on SKAI.
Meanwhile, Adonis Georgiadis, speaking separately on Parapolitika, said their positions were not “shared”: “They were not on the same page. If you look at Karamanlis’s speech, he said what he always says—the concerns he always expresses,” he said.
For his part, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described them as “different cases”.
We do not know about different, but they are certainly difficult cases…
KAIRIDIS: “I didn’t mean it,” Dimitris Kairidis said in his own way, after describing the outcome over the Turkish-Libyan memorandum as a “defeat”.
“I spoke a lot, gave 30 interviews, and in one of them, under pressure, I spoke of a defeat mainly for Egypt, because it was the country that had invested the most,” he stressed.
The New Democracy parliamentary spokesman defended the foreign minister, stressing that Greece had made every possible effort:
“George Gerapetritis did everything he could. We fought for seven years with the means available to Greece against superior powers, as Turkey has troops in Libya,” he said.
FARMA ELASSONAS: The company achieved something that was far from a given. Despite sheep and goat pox, which, according to management, kept its slaughterhouses closed from June to October, it increased turnover by 32% to €62.35 million.
The company, acquired in 2014 by Kasidis SA, turned to 25 third-party slaughterhouses to maintain production.
Exports rose 23% and accounted for 22.24% of sales. Net profits more than doubled to €2.84 million.
But receivables from customers surged to €13.8 million, borrowings exceeded €15.45 million and operating cash flow turned negative.
OLIVE OIL: The olive oil market is changing, and Rethymno-based Latzimas is a case in point. Since 2024, the company has been controlled by The Olive Legend Group, the investment vehicle set up by SMERemediumCap, led by Nikos Karamouzis, and Inspiring Earth, led by Konstantinos Antonopoulos.
Last year it returned to a net profit of €440,000, from a loss of €3.73 million, despite turnover falling to €17.12 million. The restructuring effort appears to be paying off, but some issues remain unresolved.
The auditor has issued a qualification concerning receivables of €1.04 million, while bank borrowings exceed €10.65 million.
The key point, however, is that the company has managed to return to profitability.
AGRINO: The company marked its 70th anniversary with the best financial performance in its history. Turnover reached €51.97 million, EBITDA €7.64 million and net profit €4.22 million, up from €2.70 million in 2024. Borrowings fell by 41.1%.
The Pistiolas family business is gaining ground beyond its traditional rice market. Its share of the pulses market rose to 11%, its share of the rice cake market exceeds 60%, and exports grew by more than 12%.
But there are problems too. The company’s management estimates that land under rice cultivation in Greece is shrinking by 25%-30%, due to low prices and pressure from imports.
BANKS: Beyond the new price targets for Greek banks, the most interesting detail in the latest report from KBW lies in its detailed models for margins, based on expectations of further interest rate rises by the ECB.
If ECB rates do reach 3%, 2028 net interest income could exceed consensus by 13% at Piraeus, 14% at Alpha and 10% at Eurobank. In other words, the market may not yet have priced in the new interest rate environment.
There is other supportive news. Piraeus trades at a P/E of 7 times 2028 earnings, and its dividend yield is expected to reach 8.9%, while its net interest margin is rising towards 4.9%.
What is striking, experienced fund managers note, is that even Alpha Bank, which the broker rates Underperform, has upside potential of 29%.
This shows just how cheap Greek banks are now considered relative to their peers: they trade at 1.1-1.7 times tangible book value, compared with 1.8-2.3 times for Spanish banks.
PROFILE: The report in which Optima resumes coverage of the stock, with a target price of €13.17 (26% upside), highlights three strengths of the listed company.
The first is the quality of its revenue. Recurring revenue accounts for more than 80% of Financial Software and about 50% of Enterprise Solutions.
The second is its international presence. Overseas markets account for more than 50% of financial software revenue, with new contracts in Kenya, Norway and the Caribbean. In Greece, Piraeus selected Axia to consolidate eight systems.
The third is valuation. The stock trades at 11.2 times 2027 EBITDA, below the median for its international peers (11.8 times). The M&A approach, which carries the least weight in the valuation mix, implies a value of €17.69 per share, or 70% upside.
The report sees additional “free” growth options in CentevoNet in Norway’s €55 billion pension market, which is targeting zero EBITDA in 2027, as well as in defence.
On dividends, management is committed to distributing more than 30% of profits. Optima forecasts a dividend per share of €0.12 for 2026 (up from €0.08), rising to €0.15 in 2027, €0.18 in 2028 and €0,33 euros in 2031. The total payout rises from €2.9 million to €8.3 million.
At the current share price, the dividend yield is expected to rise gradually from 1.1% to 3.2%. The company’s cash balance provides support and is forecast to reach €94 million in 2031.