SAVVIDIS-OPEN: The National Council for Radio and Television (NCRTV) is increasing, according to reliable information, the pressure on the television station OPEN, owned by Ivan Savvidis, through an investigation that has begun.
The subject of the investigation appears to be, on the one hand, the station’s debt for the television license that has been granted to it, as well as the non-compliance (?) with the obligations regarding the minimum number of employees, which arise from the licensing regime.
However, the… malicious tongues in Northern Greece interpret the NCRTV’s move in a more behind-the-scenes way, speaking of a new attempt at exerting pressure by the government.
The reason, however, according to our sources, is not related exclusively to the fact that OPEN is sharply criticizing the Government.
In Thessaloniki it is something of an open secret that in the war between Ivan Savvidis and Telis Mystakidis (which, if you remember, also manifested itself around PAOK), the government has clearly taken the side of the latter.
So, they say, it is activating every available tool so that Ivan comes under heavy “pressing” and is weakened.
Both financially and… politically.
PASOK: Christos Kaklamanis is a rising PASOK executive, a member of its Central Committee, a collaborator of the president especially on legal matters, and with not at all “wooden” public interventions.
His latest one, however, left the leadership at Charilaou Trikoupi… speechless, since he admitted that things are not easy for his party. “The goal of coming first in the elections has become more difficult, let’s not kid ourselves”, he said in a television interview (on ERT).
And to the journalistic remark “but you set that goal”, he replied in a deafeningly honest way: “We were saying it before Mr. Tsipras appeared and we have this polling landscape”.
To the reasonable question of whether the electoral goal would be revised (downward), Mr. Kaklamanis referred to the leadership.
Implying that, yes, the goal must change because “I do not mince my words, to talk about first place when we appear as the third party…”.
Mr. Kaklamanis’s admission (i.e. the son of Apostolos with the equally “blunt” speech whenever needed) seems to have worked encouragingly for other executives as well to move accordingly.
“I would not be convincing if I said that it does not make it more difficult (the goal of becoming the first party), but it remains”, MP Nadia Giannakopoulou said in turn.
Also sending a… jab toward Charilaou Trikoupi: “We must also read the polls with very great attention, I am the last person who would question the polls”.
The effort of the party officials to keep the bag of Aeolus closed is obvious. But not easy, if the polls being prepared for the coming days show the same picture for PASOK.
All the more so if it is worse.
SYRIZA: With the back and forth of official Koumoundourou on the question “is SYRIZA running or not running in the elections” (i.e. now we are at… it is running), not only president Socrates but also the party’s MPs are being exposed.
Shortly before and immediately after the founding of ELAS by Alexis Tsipras, about ten were declaring themselves ready to resign from their parliamentary seat in order to head to the new party. Three of them even hinted that they would do so “within the next days or even hours”.
ELAS has already completed one month of life, but we have seen no resignation. The main reason? That they do not know when the elections will be held. Because it is one thing to resign now and seek re-election (with the new party) in the autumn and another to do so and remain …waiting until the spring or the beginning of next summer.
And as if this ambiguity were not enough, ELAS’s sector heads were also announced - or in other words Alexis’s “shadow ministers”. You see, almost all of them will be candidates in the elections and are expected “to get the ticket” because of (also) the exposure they will have gained by then - plus the support from the party.
So the question, in free translation, is: “should we resign as MPs before our time and not have any prospect of re-election?”.
It remains to be seen whether Tsipras will… soften and not insist on the condition he has set: “first resignation and then discussion”.
SYRIZA II: Incidentally, the mess prevailing in the party after the… full reverse by the majority group and the discussions about “collective leadership”, justify the former prime minister’s decision to slam the door on them and leave.
Because the way his former comrades are going about it, elections will first be called and then they will decide whether SYRIZA will run as an autonomous party and under what leadership.
SHIPPING-TURKEY: Thousands of shipowners, shipbrokers, bankers, insurers, lawyers and representatives of shipping companies were in Istanbul for the seventh edition of the Bosphorus Shipbrokers' Dinner, which is developing into the leading event of Turkish shipping week, aspiring to become a counterweight to the Posidonia in Piraeus, which has for years been a landmark event of global shipping.
As also happens with Posidonia in Greece, the parallel events have acquired greater weight than the conference itself, with receptions, business meetings and cruises on the Bosphorus attracting visitors from all over the world.
This momentum is also reflected in the numbers. According to Clarksons, the Turkish fleet (significantly smaller in numbers) has increased by 81% since 2020, compared with just 7% for the Greek one, while the market is attracting more and more financing from Chinese, Japanese and also Greek banks, such as the National Bank, which are covering part of the gap left by several Western European financial groups.
The commercial partner of Next Maritime, Nikos Marmatsouris, who has been active in the Turkish market for more than three decades, attributes this momentum mainly to the size of the domestic economy.
As he points out, Turkey is a large and self-sufficient market, a fact that allows it to consistently support the development of its shipping, while at the same time a new generation of executives, educated in the USA and Britain, is leading the sector on a more modern and internationalized course.
PANAGIOTIDIS: The investment fund MPC Storm Maritime Opportunities (MSO) made its second investment since its establishment, acquiring the modern bulk carrier Rio Hamburg (85,000 dwt, built in 2022) in cooperation with the Swiss dry bulk manager Suisse-Atlantique.
The vessel had been sold in March by CSSC Hong Kong Shipping, a leasing subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding, for about $33.5 million, according to VesselsValue.
MSO is a joint venture of MPC Capital, in the interests of Petros Panagiotidis, and Norway’s Storm Capital Management of investor Morten Astrup.
The fund raised $35 million at its launch in February and aims to create a portfolio of modern second-hand vessels in the dry bulk, tanker and containership sectors.
The financing of the acquisition includes borrowing from an American financier, while the vessel already has secured employment with a time charter of 12 to 14 months from a major European charterer.
MPC Capital, which is controlled by Petros Panagiotidis of Castor Maritime, seeks through the new fund to increase its assets under management to about $70 million.
MITSIS: The Mitsis group took another step for the development of its new project in Ioannina. The Ioannina Building Service approved the building permit for the Mitsis group’s new five-star hotel unit in the Paralimnio - Votanikos area, opening the way for an investment estimated to exceed 50 million euros.
The project concerns a hotel with a capacity of 300 beds, which will be developed on an area of 35,940 sq.m. with total construction of 7,181 sq.m. The new unit is part of the group’s strategy for the development of high-specification projects and the acquisition of a presence in other popular tourist destinations in the country as well.
TOURISM: Today is a big day for the new spatial planning framework for tourism, since the Council of Spatial Planning is meeting today and, as those in the know say, clear directions are expected regarding the changes that will be incorporated into the final text…
The only certain thing is that time is pressing, since, based on the timetable, the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision was supposed to be published today; however, the changes that have taken place at the Ministry of Environment and Energy lately for reasons of force majeure have contributed to the delays.
Today, however, the die is cast…
MOTOR OIL-AKTOR: With EBITDA of 50 million euros, the enterprise value of the joint HELECTOR-Thalis scheme is, according to analysts, in a range between 400 and over 500 million euros depending on how conservative or how aggressive the valuation will be.
As of 31/12/2025, the scheme had a backlog of about 600 million euros, covering both the construction of environmental infrastructure and the operation of modern processing units. The personnel of the HELECTOR group on 31/12/2025 amounted to 725 people and of Thalis to 169 people.
MOH controls 100% of HELECTOR and 92.11% of Thalis, through Manetial Ltd (i.e. the remaining 7.88% of Thalis is controlled directly by MOH), whose share capital amounted on 31/3/2026 to 178.8 million euros.
Given that it is a holding company, with no other activity, the total of 178.5 million euros was spent on the acquisition of 100% of HELECTOR (i.e. it cost about 124 to 125 million euros), 100% of Thalis (i.e. no price was announced) and the capital increase of Thalis, (i.e. 29 million euros), in November 2024.
Add to this the transaction expenses as well.
AKTOR: The stock is being maintained at record levels, with the group confirming the information reported by the column since the morning and announcing a proposal to acquire 75% of the group subsidiaries of Motor Oil Helector and Thalis.
The stock completed the session at 13.4 euros or 0.15% higher despite the pressures that emerged in the middle of the session. It is recalled that the gains since June 15 reach 35.3%.
MOTOR OIL: Very close to its own high (40.66 euros from June 11) was the stock of the Vardinogiannis group, which is also discussing with Aktor the issue of the FSRU.
Yesterday it rose 3.3% higher with the close at 39.4 euros and transactions at 5.6 million.
In practical terms, of course, the stock is already at a new record given that on Friday it “cut” a dividend of 1.4 euros per share.
PPA: The port of Piraeus returned to record levels for this year. The company recently saw in May that container traffic was reheating and hopes the trend will continue.
With transactions of 462 thousand euros it rose 4.35% and now stands at 43.2 euros.
CENERGY: The downward movement, which started the day after the placement, continues in the subsidiary of the Viohalco group.
Yesterday, despite the generally upward climate, it lost 2.18%, the highest percentage among the FTSE 25 stocks, and closed at 23.3 euros.
We remind you that Viohalco sold the shares at 24.2 euros.