MITSOTAKIS: On Thursday, the prime minister heads to Antonis Samaras’s stronghold for what may be his toughest assignment outside Attica.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be in Kalamata, the capital of Messinia, in response to an invitation from the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) to attend its conference.
Given the new political venture being prepared by Antonis Samaras, which is courting his fellow Messinians first and foremost, the region is inevitably less hospitable than ever to a New Democracy leader.
As part of his tour, Mr Mitsotakis will visit the road being built between “Kalamata – Rizomylos – Pylos – Methoni” and possibly the airport as well.
P.S. Next Sunday is also circled in Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s diary, as he is likely to visit Serres, the hometown of another former prime minister and New Democracy leader, Kostas Karamanlis.
The occasion will be the celebration of the city’s patron saints, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, as well as the return from Bulgaria of ecclesiastical treasures to the Holy Metropolis of Serres and Nigrita.
Two visits with powerful symbolism!
GOVERNMENT: The Maximos Mansion is putting “law and order” front and centre as it seeks to attract undecided centre-right voters ahead of the election.
Against the backdrop of strong opposition criticism over public safety, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will speak this afternoon at an event marking the second anniversary of the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime (DAOE) at the Athens Concert Hall.
He will praise the role and effectiveness of the service, which has dismantled 259 criminal organisations and made 3,254 arrests.
The prime minister will also refer to the more than 60,000 routine tax audits carried out over the past two years, which, he will say, resulted in fines of more than €5.2bn.
BELGIUM I: Ask someone following current affairs which country is at risk of joining France in a fiscal crisis and the answer, almost instinctively, will be Italy.
But markets have started looking elsewhere. To... Belgium!
The yield on Belgium’s 10-year bond reached 4.40% on Monday, just one basis point below Italy’s, at 4.41%. That is despite Belgium borrowing at almost the same rate as Greece in mid-October.
The rise is not hard to explain. Belgium’s deficit reached 5.2% of GDP in 2025, exceeding even France’s (5.1%) and recording the highest level in the eurozone.
Debt is expected to exceed 110% of GDP this year, with projections pointing to more than 120% by 2030. The country’s central bank forecasts that without significant new measures, the deficit will remain around 5% until the end of the decade.
Worse still, rising interest rates bring forward by two years, to 2029, the risk of a debt “snowball”, in which the state borrows ever more simply to pay the interest.
Italy, by contrast, despite much higher debt (137%), has reduced its deficit to 3.1%, with the aim of bringing it below 3% this year, and is already recording primary surpluses.
BELGIUM II: The country’s political situation is also weighing on the outlook, with the government on the brink of collapse.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Bart De Wever tendered his resignation to King Philippe after failing to secure an agreement on the 2027 budget.
The king deferred his decision and is beginning consultations with the leaders of the governing parties today. He is due to meet the prime minister again on Friday.
We have, of course, seen this before. Last year, it took an extra 50 days to agree on a €9.2bn package. This year, the five governing parties are seeking even more, around €10bn in total.
The socialists and centrists want the wealthy to pay more. The nationalists of N-VA and the liberals oppose new taxes. And the deadlock continues.
If an election is eventually called, things could get worse. Polls put the far-right Vlaams Belang first in Flanders, with 27.8%, and the far-left PTB/PVDA first in Brussels. Vlaams Belang, however, is excluded from any coalition by the cordon sanitaire.
The main issue, then, is not so much who will take power as the possibility that no coalition government can be formed in a country that once took... 541 days to form a government!
Belgium is not large enough to blow up the eurozone as Italy could. But it is home to the European Commission. And the Commission, which lectures the rest of Europe on fiscal discipline, now has a problem “on its doorstep”.
KARAVIAS: Businesspeople and market executives described yesterday’s intervention by the Eurobank chief executive at the 9th Athens Investment Forum as a statesmanlike one.
Fokion Karavias called the ongoing pre-election debate about how to divide the economy’s “pie” unproductive, warning that it even puts fiscal stability at risk. He also noted the absence of proposals for how to grow the “pie”, despite general agreement that it remains relatively small.
According to Eurobank’s CEO, fiscal prudence has a social dimension, even though it is often underestimated. At a time of demographic pressure, the problem should not be made worse by passing debt on to future generations.
In the same vein, boosting productivity through investment focused on frontier sectors lays the foundations for greater prosperity and a greater capacity to pass wealth from one generation to the next.
PIRAEUS: Piraeus had €246m in impaired home loans (Purchased or Originated Credit Impaired – POCI) at the end of the first nine months of the year.
These are loan agreements that were amended with borrowers’ consent (in practice, the old loans were derecognised and new ones recognised), converting step-up loans into loans with principal-and-interest repayments.
Piraeus’s total POCI loans stood at €268m on 30 September. Of these, €228m are included in NPEs (stage III).
NATECH-SNAPPI: “A bird in the hand…” was the approach chosen by Natech, Piraeus’s partner in the Snappi venture, as it sold part of its stake in the neobank to Piraeus during the course of this year.
Last April, Natech transferred 8.1% of Snappi’s share capital to Piraeus for €28.3m. Some of that money (€9.4m) was returned to Natech’s shareholders. According to Piraeus’s financial statements, it acquired a further 3.62% of Snappi in May, for €12.7m.
Since there were no other shareholders, the 3.62% was bought from Natech, which received a total of €41.1m for selling its 11.72% stake in Snappi.
Piraeus’s stake rose to 68% from 56.28%, while retained earnings fell by €35m as a result of consolidation, of which €6m relates to minority interests.
CONSTRUCTION: Yesterday’s Green Deal conference organised by the Technical Chamber of Greece and Economix featured plenty of interesting discussion about the property market and construction. Some points, though, were more interesting than others.
At panels on the real estate market, much of the discussion focused on the problems that continue to stem from changes to the New Building Regulation (NOK). The issue may have faded from the headlines, but that does not mean it has been resolved. Quite the opposite.
Ten Brinke chief executive Fotis Gioptsios put it starkly. He said the company had invested millions of euros in properties where work had been suspended because of legal challenges related to the NOK.
In one case, the wait for a ruling has already exceeded two years. “We are still facing a lot of problems, and we don’t know when they will be resolved,” he said.
As decisions are delayed, costs keep mounting, construction costs rise and initial business plans are upended. In other words, uncertainty is not just on paper; it translates into real costs for investors.
By contrast, the picture appears different for major construction projects. For GEK TERNA, the main problem highlighted by executive director Petros Souretis is not a lack of projects, but a shortage of staff.
With the four largest construction companies said to have a combined backlog of around €17bn, the question is where they will find the workers to deliver all these projects.
Two different problems, but two sides of the same market.
WRONGDOING: Can a corrupt civil servant who takes bribes, to put it plainly, avoid being dismissed from the public sector? Unfortunately, the answer is yes, as a recent ruling by the Council of State shows.
The first- and second-instance disciplinary boards of the Region of Central Greece had imposed the harshest disciplinary penalty, permanent dismissal, on a permanent employee of the Regional Unit of Boeotia.
The charges included breach of duty under the Criminal Code, obtaining financial benefit for himself or a third party while carrying out his duties, and conduct at work that was particularly undignified or unbecoming of a civil servant.
Even in this extreme case, however, the civil servant ultimately avoided dismissal because the Council of State ruled that the disciplinary boards that convicted him had not been constituted in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law.
The Council of State cannot, of course, be criticised for applying the law. But it is baffling how disciplinary boards manage to make such a mess even in cases involving such serious disciplinary charges.
ALVEO: The company’s name may not mean anything to you; after all, it has only just been “born”. But you will certainly have heard of the Varvitsiotis name.
Thomas Varvitsiotis founded ALVEO Capital Advisors yesterday, with capital of €25,000 and himself as its sole shareholder. But the company’s articles of association are more interesting than its capital.
Mergers, acquisitions, business valuations, restructuring and investment advice are all on the menu. Of course, the activities set out in a company’s articles are one thing; the deals it actually closes are another.
CHITOS: Something tells us that 8 December will not be an ordinary Tuesday for the business family. Here’s why. A brief “Save the Date” invitation, signed by the group, has landed on journalists’ desks, inviting them to a gathering.
No venue, no agenda, and no hint of what it is about. That is where the column’s suspicions begin. The businesspeople from Epirus are not known for holding get-togethers and issuing invitations.
If they are going to the trouble of bringing people together, might they have something to announce? Could there be a development in Japan beyond the existing agreement? Could it concern Saudi Arabia and the agreement there? Is the Stock Exchange back on the table?
Or is the news much closer to home?
CHITOS II: And while we are talking about the company, the column has learnt that from 9 November it will take over exclusive distribution of US brand AriZona Iced Tea in Greece.
The company is preparing to push it into kiosks, mini-markets, cafés, bars and beach bars, with trade discounts. With this move, it wants to secure a bigger share of consumer spending on non-alcoholic drinks.
AKTOR: Qube Research & Technologies Limited has increased its short position in the Greek group. It was disclosed that, as of 29 October, the position stood at 0.90403% of the share capital, up from 0.82746% previously.
On the Athens bourse, Aktor closed yesterday down a marginal 0.19%, at €10.34.
BIOTER: The construction company is seeking to get its engines running again in construction and open a new chapter in real estate through a share capital increase of up to €2m. The plan is not without risk, as the company itself is quick to point out.
In an information memorandum published yesterday, Bioter acknowledges that returning to construction and expanding in the property sector are not a given. Any failure to carry out its plans, or adverse conditions in either market, could negatively affect its growth prospects.
Of the funds to be raised, around €600,000 is earmarked for implementing the restructuring agreement and €1.3m for strengthening working capital.
There is, however, one interesting detail: a substantial part of the increase has already been covered. Specifically, of the €2m the company is seeking to raise, €1.4m has already been paid as an advance by Trialfam S.A., an existing Bioter shareholder.
Its participation follows a recommendation from Bioter’s main shareholder and chief executive, Antonia Katsarou, who is to transfer the corresponding pre-emption rights to it.
REFINERIES: Yesterday’s session was déjà vu for the two shares, echoing Thursday’s trading: HelleniQ Energy closed at €17.04, down 5.86%, while Motor Oil ended at €63.35, down 5.8%. On Thursday, the respective declines were 5.02% and 5.63%.
The same protagonists, the same losses. The difference was that Friday intervened, bringing a rebound that looked like “the correction was over”. It wasn’t. In a single session, the entire recovery was wiped out, and both shares closed below Thursday’s levels.
The reasons have changed very little. On Thursday, the focus was on Europe’s decision to release 42m barrels from strategic reserves into the market, half of them diesel. Yesterday, a more than 6% plunge in Brent was added to the mix, amid talks in Qatar about reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
There is, of course, also the “temptation” of profit-taking: after gains of more than 100% this year, taking profits is an option for many institutional investors.
In any case, HelleniQ Energy hit a high of €19.64 on 16 October and has since fallen 13.2%. Motor Oil’s peak was €70 on 19 October, putting it 9.5% below that level.