Hello, I’ll start today’s column again with a bit of a light anecdote from the news before getting into the (slightly) more serious stuff. So, I heard Kyranakis’s proposal to… subsidize taxi drivers so that young people can take taxis on weekends when they go out drinking, which is indeed when we see the most accidents. Alright, I wouldn’t exactly call it a… brilliant idea, fair enough, and most likely such things don’t really happen. It would be better if the government, after six years, had 1,000 new buses operating across the country until 3 a.m. on weekends, which would solve a significant part of the problem — and, more generally, the huge issue with public transport. I repeat: when a country stands to receive €36 billion from the Recovery Fund, no one can fathom how there’s supposedly no money left for new buses; the rest is nonsense, pardon the expression.

But then there’s Thymios…

And now we have Thymios (Lymberopoulos), who has suddenly “resurfaced” and is lecturing us. I mean, let me ask — naively — does the taxi driver who picks someone up outside a club on Saturday night ask what they’ve had to drink? Ridiculous. But we’re tired of this constant protection of taxi drivers, who never want anything done properly (paying the minimum tax, installing POS machines, not using emergency lanes) — we’ve been dealing with this from the Junta era to the time of Tsipras…

Appointment in Rome

Following up on what I mentioned yesterday about the Kyranakis-Salvini meeting in Rome, let me tell you it’s been officially scheduled for Thursday noon at the office of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister. I hear that present will be the CEO of Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane (the parent company of Hellenic Train), Stefano Donnarumma, as well as the CEO of Hellenic Train. We are urgently asking them to upgrade the rolling stock, because we’re now facing 1.7 breakdown incidents per day. The Italians, on the other hand, respond that the railway is extremely unprofitable, so they’re reluctant to invest, and we say that if they don’t invest, there’s no chance the railway will ever become profitable with these “wrecks.”

Hatzidakis, the Council of State, and Prokopis

Yesterday I was looking at some photos from Molyviatis’s funeral and saw Kostis Hatzidakis close to Prokopis Pavlopoulos. It reminded me that the former President of the Republic, along with Evangelos Venizelos and former ND MP Theodoros Fortsakis, had publicly opposed the imputed income basis for freelancers at an event a few months ago, denouncing it as unconstitutional. The Council of State ruling came out the day before yesterday and deemed the imputed income basis constitutional, but Prokopis didn’t seem particularly fazed. Worth noting: I was reminded that none of the laws introduced by Hatzidakis have ever been deemed unconstitutional, despite his having legislated on matters from Olympic Airways, PPC, and EFKA, to environmental and labor laws.

Kefalogiannis’s meetings

With the fire season officially underway, the Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Giannis Kefalogiannis, is wrapping up a series of large-scale coordination meetings he convened in recent weeks across the country, aiming for effective coordination among all relevant agencies. These meetings began even before the official start of the season and have already taken place in Attica, the Peloponnese, Central and Eastern Macedonia, as well as in Crete. Today it’s the South Aegean Region’s turn, in Rhodes, while the final meeting is scheduled for next week in Komotini, in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The meetings are attended by everyone — from local authorities and the armed forces to the DEDDIE and forestry services.

Tsipras – here we come!

Speaking of Tsipras, I saw the other day the Opinion poll according to which 26.4% of respondents view Alexis Tsipras’s return to active politics positively. In fact, I asked a source from the broader Left who told me that this isn’t the first polling firm to find such broad support for our leader Alexis — it’s actually the fourth survey, and from different firms, over the past six months. Watch out, Zois-Tsofamelos-Kasselakis-Varoufakis-Haritsis crowd (phew), we’re coming!

The battle over digitizing Land Registries

Now to market news, starting with the major €240 million project to digitize land registry archives. The process is moving forward as planned, but the big problem remains — all five consortiums running the project have filed appeals against the Land Registry authority’s decision to revise the original financial terms and reduce the contract amount by 17%. Their claim relates to a decrease in the cost of scanning each page, and the project contractors estimate their losses at around €30–35 million. In recent weeks, there were reports that a compromise had been reached, accepted by all parties, but as of yesterday, a top executive from a major IT group said: “There’s nothing on paper. The decision was communicated to us unexpectedly, the amendment was made unilaterally, we filed appeals, but we’re continuing the project — and although we hear there’s a solution, nothing has been signed yet.” So far, it’s estimated that over 50% of the project has been completed.

Piraeus is exploring its options

Despite significant announcements by the management following Q1 results, the stock market “adjusted” Piraeus Bank’s share price down by 1.09% to €5.0980, holding its market cap at €6.3 billion. The figures released yesterday by Piraeus management place the bank’s tangible book value per share at €6.01. As a result, the stock trades at a 15% discount to its tangible book value. A possible explanation for this behavior is that many in the market believe Piraeus’s management has decided to make significant investments in acquisitions to enhance the quality of its operations.

Tsamaz’s debut in defense

Exactly two years ago, during the DEFEA (Defence Exhibition Athens), the main news was the agreement signed between Socrates Kokkalis and the Israeli defense giant Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which completed the acquisition of Intracom Defense (IDE). Two years later, IDE is now under new management and, notably, with a new chairman — Michalis Tsamaz — at a time when defense companies are in the spotlight due to Greece’s armament program and the European “ReArm Europe” initiative. On Monday night, during a DEFEA event, Guy Bar, Executive VP of IAI’s Systems, Missile & Space Group, spoke about the restructuring and major plans for IDE, which has tripled its order backlog and increased its sales. He also mentioned the Barak-MX system, which will be the backbone of future capabilities to be developed by IDE and other Greek partners for national defense. For his part, Michalis Tsamaz, in his first public appearance as chairman of IDE, stated that the goal is to support the modernization of Greece’s defense and internal security, with investments in AI, robotics, autonomous systems, and advanced hybrid energy platforms. In discussions on the sidelines of the event, he didn’t hide the fact that there are many similarities with OTE — the company he left after many years — as both focus heavily on technology and innovation. He also spoke warmly about the Israelis from IAI, saying it’s a great opportunity for the country overall, as they have big plans to build serious infrastructure in the domestic defense industry.

Golden turnover of €9.8 million for Varveris’ Interni restaurant

While some strive to make profits through deals, business partnerships, and new production lines, everything is going smoothly at Moda Bagno, betting on the popular and ultra-luxurious Interni restaurant, which has once again “gilded” Nikos Varveris’ group. According to the 2024 financial results, the luxury resto in Mykonos accounted for more than one-third of the total annual turnover, with €9.8 million, up from €8.5 million in 2023. As mentioned, “a significant factor in the company’s performance was the food service sector, in which it has been active since 2000 with the internationally recognized Interni Restaurant in Mykonos. This year’s operation of the restaurant exceeded initial forecasts to a large extent, achieving the highest turnover ever, with a 15.36% increase compared to 2023.” It is noted that in 2025, Interni in Mykonos marks 25 years of continuous operation. The Moda Bagno group overall also showed an upward trajectory, with turnover rising to €28.29 million from €24.52 million in 2023. A particularly successful category last year was kitchen furniture and home appliances, where sales nearly doubled to €4.84 million in 2024 from €2.66 million in 2023 (+81.81%). “The year 2024 was an exceptionally good year for the company, the best compared to previous years since the onset of the financial crisis,” it is emphasized, attributed to the brand’s reliability and the ongoing boom in the construction sector (new housing, tourist accommodation projects, and renovations) in recent years. Admittedly, Moda Bagno’s financial performance still lags behind pre-crisis levels, when in 2008 turnover peaked at €44 million, but it’s on the right track. It’s also worth noting that there were management changes at Moda Bagno, with 80-year-old Nikos Varveris stepping down as CEO and becoming Chairman of the Board, while the leadership of the company passed to Alexandros and Filippos Varveris, who took over as new CEOs.

The Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP) changes model for its 16 subsidiaries

HCAP will transition into a “Group of Companies” while it currently operates as a “Holding Company” with several loss-making subsidiaries. The first decisions of HCAP’s new administration aim to intervene and change the governance model of all companies that once symbolized the disgrace of the bailout era, with the goal—not of selling, but—of leveraging and making all companies profitable, following the model of DEI and EYDAP. At present, HCAP has 16 subsidiaries and holdings across six major sectors of investment activity (energy, real estate, food and supply, transport and infrastructure, technology, postal services), with 25,000 employees, and manages assets worth €5.5 billion.

Coca Cola emerges as a global player

In Monday’s trading session, with the London Stock Exchange closed due to a public holiday, Coca Cola HBC’s stock remained still and flat, with 7,300 shares traded. Yesterday, with the LSE “back in business,” trading volume in Coca Cola HBC’s stock quintupled, and the stock easily reached a market capitalization of €17 billion at a price of €45.8/share. The simultaneous trading of the stock in London and Athens became even more evident, as did the company’s exposure in international portfolios. Even under conditions of war in the North and South, Coca Cola posted a 10.6% organic revenue increase in the first quarter, a 1.8% rise in sales volume on an organic basis, and an 8.7% increase in net revenue per case.

TITAN: Poised for Surprises

The announcement of first-quarter results from subsidiary TITAN America offered new prospects for the TITAN Group. Based on the published results and subsequent analyses, the value of TITAN America exceeds $2.4 billion. At the same time — and with yesterday’s +1.12% rise to €40.6 — the total market capitalization of the TITAN Group does not even reach €3.2 billion. Since it’s hard to believe that all the Group’s other assets and operations are valued at just €800 million, it’s clear that TITAN is hiding some surprises.

Stock Market: When You Don’t Know Where the Surprise Will Come From

Investors expected a jolt from New York, but the shock came from Berlin. Few had factored into their strategies yesterday morning’s negative surprise from Germany, following months of coalition negotiations. Eventually, by midday it was announced there would be a second round, but by the afternoon Friedrich Merz managed to gather the required votes and was elected Chancellor of Germany. Few noteworthy events came out of yesterday’s Athens Stock Exchange session. The General Index closed down -0.87% at 1,716.22 points, with trading volume slightly improved at €130 million, of which €12.6 million were block trades. Banks had their own problems: National Bank fell -3.18% to €9.38, Eurobank dropped -2.53% to €2.42 yet held second place in market cap, followed by Piraeus and Alpha with ~1% losses. Pressure was seen on Metlen, PPC, MOH, with smaller losses for Aegean, GEK TERNA, Cenergy, and Coca Cola. Gains were recorded by TITAN (+1.12%), OTE (+0.42%), while Hellenic Petroleum and Jumbo edged slightly higher.

Kerameus to Promise Changes to the Law on Occupational Pension Funds

Tomorrow marks the 6th Occupational Insurance Conference under the auspices of the Bank of Greece. Its central theme is “The New Development Model of Occupational Insurance,” focusing on the institution of multi-employer Occupational Pension Funds, introduced by Law 5078 in December 2023 but not yet implemented. Keynote speaker will be Ioannis Tsikripis, General Director of Preventive Supervision and Resolution at the Bank of Greece. A significant intervention will also be made by Labor Minister Niki Kerameus, who is expected to promise substantial supportive amendments to Law 5078 to promote the evolution of Occupational Pension Funds and the domestic retirement-insurance system overall.

PwC Lays Off 1,500 Employees (in the U.S.)

Global auditing giant PwC announced it will cut around 1,500 jobs in the U.S. Officially, the restructuring is due mainly to reduced demand. However, many believe the real cause lies in roles being replaced by artificial intelligence and automation. After the pandemic, all global consulting firms, including PwC, went on massive hiring sprees due to overwhelming workload — and competition has since intensified dramatically. Now, beginning in fiscally challenged America, a rationalization phase has started. The announced layoffs mainly target consulting services, products, and technology operations, with about half affecting offshore activities.

Signs of the Times

Warren Buffett is liquidating stocks and accumulating $350 billion in cash. Gold is soaring to unprecedented levels — gaining over $160 in just two days and now trading near $3,400 per ounce. Since 2020, it has outperformed the S&P 500 by 35%. Traditional “safe haven” assets are gaining ground: the Swiss franc is already 7% stronger than the euro, which itself is 4% stronger than the dollar. Meanwhile, Barclays is warning about “irrational exuberance in the stock markets,” as equities have returned to pre-Liberation Day levels on hopes for U.S. trade deals and further rate cuts. Stock and gold markets are telling two very different short-term stories about the future. The Fear & Greed Index has risen by about 54 points from its April 2025 low. Macroeconomic uncertainty hasn’t disappeared. In this entire cycle, someone is wrong — someone is misreading the future.