Quest: ACS comes back into the fold, and questions remain – Servicers: How Article 23 hit a wall – Tips on OTE, Athens Airport and Frigoglass

QUEST I: Germany’s GLS has ultimately said no to acquiring the remaining 80% of ACS, leaving Theodoros Fessas’s Quest with a financial gain of around €37 million from the deal, according to its own announcement.

Recall that in October 2024 Quest sold GLS a 20% stake in ACS for €74 million, plus adjustments of around €3 million. The buyers had the option to acquire the remaining 80%, at a minimum price of €296 million.

They did not exercise it, and Quest immediately activated its own right to buy back the 20% stake for €37 million, plus the agreed adjustments. If completed, the transaction will return ACS in full to the Greek group at the end of November.

Not bad at all! Especially as Quest is taking back a company that continues to grow. In the first half of 2026, ACS increased sales by 8.4% to €83.1 million and EBITDA by... 19% to €15.9 million.

But a reasonable question arises. If that is the case, why did GLS abandon the acquisition, leaving around €40 million on the table?

The Greek side maintains that this was a business decision by GLS, unrelated to ACS. One possible explanation is that in April 2025, after the initial agreement, GLS’s parent company, IDS, came under the control of the EP group, owned by Daniel Křetínský.

Six months later, in October 2025, GLS let its first opportunity to acquire ACS pass without taking it. A new owner, and possibly new strategic priorities.

In addition, parent company IDS now has significantly higher debt, while GLS’s operating profit fell by 17% in its latest financial year. These factors may help explain why the acquisition of ACS ceased to be a priority.

QUEST II: Since a company would not walk away without completing a deal after paying tens of millions of euros unless there were a significant reason, the move has inevitably raised questions among investors.

The most important, however, concerns what happens next.

The €37 million is certainly a sizeable gain. But there is also the €296 million the group could have received from selling the remaining 80%.

This is not, of course, a loss. Quest retains a profitable business in which it continued to invest even when a sale seemed likely.

But it does represent a significant change in the landscape. The €296 million could have funded new acquisitions and investments or been returned, in part, to shareholders.

The question now is what strategy Quest will pursue for ACS. Theodoros Fessas previously said that the group develops each of its holdings “as if we had it for life”, while not ruling out a sale on favourable terms.

That stance leaves both options open.

Finally, there is an accounting “detail” worth pointing out. The €37 million does not automatically translate into an equivalent increase in consolidated earnings. The initial sale was recorded in equity, while the valuations of the related rights have already affected the results.

SERVICERS: The government emerged from the brief political storm over the provision in Article 23 with some political… scratches—and servicers deeply dissatisfied. The provision would have allowed debt-servicing companies to proceed directly to seizures and auctions if a borrower stopped meeting the terms of a bilateral debt restructuring.

To blow our own trumpet, we should point out that Euro2day.gr was the first news outlet to highlight the issue, on 19 October, well before it became the subject of intense public debate.

Beyond the legal aspects, which may seem convoluted and hard to understand to most people, it is important to recognise that this was not a debate that emerged suddenly.

Servicers had been asking the government for a significant simplification of procedures for a long time: when a restructuring is agreed with a borrower, they should be able to proceed with enforcement without further court proceedings—which are always time-consuming—if the borrower fails to comply with the agreement.

They argued that this would speed up recoveries of non-performing loans, particularly those of special interest to the government: loans securitised under the state-backed Hercules scheme.

In what was probably the last relevant bill to be tabled before the forthcoming election, the government decided to grant the request, perhaps hoping that the adverse consequences for borrowers would be politically offset by the bill’s other, generally favourable measures.

Indeed, until the last moment, officials at the Ministry of National Economy and Finance vigorously defended the provision, insisting that borrowers’ rights were not being weakened.

SERVICERS II: But the effort was lost at the final hurdle, and the Ministry of National Economy and Finance chose to sound the retreat and withdraw the provision from the bill.

What weighed most heavily? It was not only opposition criticism, the most vocal of which came from Milena Apostolaki. There was also the fierce backlash from lawyers, which became clear when the Co-ordinating Committee of the Plenary of the Presidents of the Greek Bar Associations issued a “fiery” statement on the matter.

In addition to their concern for borrowers’ rights, lawyers across the country were clearly alarmed by the prospect of losing huge volumes of legal work overnight: challenges to payment orders.

As all this unfolded against a political backdrop in which the government was anxiously counting every last vote ahead of next spring’s election, withdrawal ultimately became the ministry’s only option. The cost of a confrontation with hundreds of thousands of borrowers and lawyers across the country was “weighed” as far greater than the cost of withdrawing a measure that would have sped up procedures and made it easier for servicers to recover debts.

When servicers learned that the provision had hit a wall, the reaction was one of “shock” and deep scepticism. They saw a measure they had been pursuing through intensive lobbying for a long time “torpedoed” at the eleventh hour. It is now entirely uncertain whether, when or under which government it might return in a future bill.

There is one consolation, of course: Hercules loans run until the 2070s, so time has not run out…

PASOK: Harilaou Trikoupi is seeking to convey the impression that the main opposition party is on the verge of forming a progressive government after the first—or … second—general election. The aim is less to boost the morale of its “green” supporters than to signal that it sees the party’s leading role in the centre-left as a certainty—that is, that it will finish ahead of Alexis Tsipras.

With that in mind, Nikos Androulakis made a significant move at Friday’s recent meeting of the Political Council, announcing plans to create a party “task force” to identify and prioritise the major issues that the Greek Presidency of the EU should promote in the second half of 2027.

In other words, something like: “We’ll be ready both for domestic developments and for European priorities.”

The group will be led by PASOK MEP Giannis Maniatis (a veteran in energy policy, having previously served as a minister), alongside party officials, current and former MEPs, and academics.

With this level of preparation, Harilaou Trikoupi seems not only to regard electoral victory as a foregone conclusion but also to be rushing towards the swearing-in of a new government—“a PASOK government or one led by PASOK”, as party officials put it.

SHIPPING: The Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) has a new leader in a historic change: Natalia Margioli has become the first woman and the first Greek to head the organisation in its 115-year history.

Margioli, managing director of the ICS’s Greek office, was elected by the board in Cape Town, South Africa, succeeding Punit Oza, whose two-year term has ended.

She said her election was a major personal and professional milestone, having been associated with the Institute for more than 20 years. She also highlighted the Greek presence, noting that the Greek branch has grown into one of the strongest and most active in the international network.

Her priorities include strengthening maritime education, working with young professionals and adapting the Institute to technological and regulatory changes in shipping. The ICS was founded in London in 1911 and has around 4,000 members and fellows, with 27 offices worldwide.

SHIPPING II: Trading in second-hand suezmax tankers is particularly brisk, with Greek shipowners dominating both purchases and sales as a sharp rise in VLCC prices turns investors and shipowners towards cheaper tonnage.

According to data from Veson Nautical (VesselsValue), 124 suezmaxes have changed hands since the start of 2026, up 35% from 92 over the same period last year. Greece accounts for 21% of purchases and ranks first in sales, with a 33% share.

Among the sellers, Dynacom Tankers Management, owned by George Prokopiou, stands out, having sold nine vessels.

The surge in values is illustrated by the case of Delta Tankers, owned by Diamantis Diamantidis. The suezmax Delta Sky, bought in 2025 by Greece’s Liquimar for $55.5 million, is now valued at $105 million.

The value of a 15-year-old suezmax has risen by around 135% since the start of the year, while annual time-charter rates have surged by 301% to $161,054 a day.

PISTIOLIS: Rubico, owned by Greek shipowner Evangelos Pistiolis, has again restructured its share count in an effort to lift its Nasdaq share price and ensure compliance with the minimum requirements for remaining listed on the US exchange.

The listed company announced a reverse stock split at a ratio of 1-for-25, the fourth such measure since the start of 2026. The move cut the number of shares from around 13.5 million to 540,694, while the share price rose to $2.76 from $0.11 at the previous session.  Nasdaq requires a minimum share price of $1.

Rubico has two modern suezmaxes and three MR tankers under construction, due for delivery in 2029, as well as a large yacht.

According to VesselsValue, the two suezmaxes are valued at $307 million and the MRs at $141 million, compared with a market capitalisation of just $35 million. Meanwhile, Top Ships, also owned by Pistiolis, announced a 1-for-10 reverse split, effective on 5 November.

ATHENS AIRPORT: Shares in “Eleftherios Venizelos” took a heavy hit on Friday after UBS downgraded the stock, with the bank issuing what is, admittedly, a rare “sell” recommendation.

UBS also cut its price target to €10.3 from €10.7, estimating downside of around 19% from current levels. The stock fell sharply, losing more than 5% at one point during the session, before closing at €12.21, down 4.61%, on heavy turnover.

In its report, the bank attributed the downgrade in part to a lower valuation for commercial activities, reflecting the limited commercial expansion implied by the capital expenditure programme, and in part to uncertainty over passenger traffic in 2027 as airlines review their flight capacity.

FRIGOGLASS: The share staged a two-day... recovery following the announcement that it would begin working with Coca-Cola HBC in 2027, providing technical services through its subsidiary BevServ.

The stock posted a second day of strong gains on Friday, closing up 8% at €0.392. It has gained almost 25% over the two days. However, it remains down for the year...

OTE: The company is improving its performance, slowly but steadily. In the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA (EBITDAaL) reached €371.4 million (+3.1%), slightly above market expectations.