Hello. Straight after the metro inauguration, and before addressing the Megaron concert hall on the city’s infrastructure works, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met New Democracy MPs in Thessaloniki. I’m told he complained, in a way, that not enough projects are being allowed to go ahead in Thessaloniki, and that New Democracy’s ratings there remain very low, certainly below the party’s national average (as was also the case in 2023). I’m told he also made clear that particular weight should be given to the city’s western districts, where Kyriakos Velopoulos’s Greek Solution party has risen sharply, as was evident in the European elections, and that he urged MPs to stay in constant contact with mayors over problems and requests as they arise, so that local leaders can in turn act as multipliers for government positions within their communities. Now, if he could also bring Delias back from Dortmund, that would be even better, but unfortunately that’s not on the cards. The truth is that New Democracy also has a shortage of senior figures in Thessaloniki, though it’s far from the only city with that problem. Generally, after eight years in power, marriages have their difficulties. That is presumably why half the cabinet was forced to travel up and line up for a metro extension. It struck me as slightly excessive, don’t you think?

The absences and the notes

Two ministers were missing from Mitsotakis’s meetings: Anna Efthymiou, Deputy Labour Minister, who was in Parliament for the bill on Occupational Pension Funds, and Elena Rapti, who had a minor health issue. Several ministers were also absent from the meeting with MPs, along with figures already announced as parliamentary candidates. Still, the Prime Minister, and in particular Deputy Prime Minister Kostas Hatzidakis, took notes on several issues raised. MPs mentioned, for example, the need for attention to matters affecting farmers, to small and large infrastructure projects in Thessaloniki that need to move forward, and even to illegal activity by Turkish fishermen. Let’s hope Telis and Ivan don’t fall out any further and turn the city into a free-for-all, that concerns us too.

A new appointment for Exarchou

Mitsotakis responded with humour yesterday to comments from Exarchou, the president and CEO of construction firm AKTOR, who said that once the metro extension to Kalamaria is delivered, the government will no longer need to put pressure on the company. The Prime Minister reminded him that AKTOR has also taken on the project to open up Pontou Street, and set a date with him, naming 1 April 2027 as the milestone for the inauguration and saying they would meet again then. What was discussed yesterday, both in corridor chats and in Mitsotakis’s meetings, is that there isn’t unlimited money for public works in Thessaloniki, since the metro extension westwards could end up costing more than 1 billion euros.

All present

The tour schedule drawn up by New Democracy Secretary General Kyranakis for government ministers, which comes into force from Monday across all prefectures of Thrace and Macedonia, has one interesting feature: nobody refused, nobody dodged it. Everyone was handed a marching order for a prefecture, complete with a positive agenda for each area and announcements of additional projects. The only ministers understandably absent from the plan are Pierrakakis and Petralias, who are working flat out to finalise the package of measures for the Thessaloniki International Fair, and who have several meetings scheduled with Mitsotakis’s team at Maximos Mansion next week on how to present them.

The tour and the Development Law

Speaking of tours, Mitsotakis will be in Florina and Kozani today, where he will visit several businesses, both private and municipal. Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos is among those accompanying him, since the Development Ministry, through the Development Law, has already supported three of the four companies Mitsotakis is visiting with roughly 12.5 million euros. In total, 282 investments have been approved under the Development Law in Macedonia and Thrace, with a combined budget of around 1 billion euros, receiving 510 million euros in support from the Development Ministry and expected to create more than 5,000 new jobs. Eighty percent of the 282 investments relate to manufacturing and industry. Over the past seven years, 15,000 industrial jobs have been created in northern Greece, while 14 industrial parks in Macedonia have also been upgraded to accommodate new production facilities.

Akrita brought on the vertigo

The truth is that PASOK, Greece’s socialist party, never bores you, even though we could have done with a little less excitement. All summer the party was in airplane mode, to put it plainly, such foot dragging hasn’t been seen in a long while. Until, that is, they woke up and decided to back Akrita’s candidacy for Deputy Speaker of Parliament, saying PASOK votes for every party’s proposals except those of the far right. Of course, Nikos A. and the rest of PASOK didn’t show such scruples over Stournaras, abstaining on the renewal of his term as Governor of the Bank of Greece. Since that was manna from heaven for the government, Government Spokesperson Marinakis naturally highlighted it, with PASOK’s Kostas Tsoukalas replying, but also slipping up by claiming the government was celebrating the alignment of MPs elected on the ticket of the Spartans, a far-right party. The trouble was that Marinakis had been asked specifically about this at a briefing and had said exactly the opposite of what PASOK’s statement claimed: that the Spartans’ votes were not welcome in the process of electing the President of the Republic.

Eleusina, the Piraeus Port Authority and the Chinese wedge in American plans

The change to the Piraeus Port Authority’s (PPA) articles of association, approved yesterday by its General Assembly, may be presented as a necessary corporate modernisation, but plenty of people are already looking a few kilometres to the west, specifically towards Eleusina. By broadening its corporate purpose, the PPA gains the ability to invest in and manage port infrastructure outside Piraeus. This is exactly what is fuelling market speculation that the PPA, and by extension China’s COSCO, could at some point turn its attention to the new port of Eleusina. Should that scenario take shape, the stakes become far higher and acquire a clear geopolitical dimension. Eleusina has been on America’s radar for years, with the United States having invested politically and financially in upgrading its shipyards and viewing the area as a crucial link in its presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Any future move by the PPA to enter a tender there would therefore bring Chinese and American interests much closer together than some in Athens and Washington would like. For now, of course, this remains market speculation, but the change to the articles of association now creates the institutional framework for moves that, until yesterday, were not easily on the table.

Austria Card awaits the green light

DNP’s public tender offer has not yet become unconditionally binding, since one final condition remains outstanding: approval from Austria’s foreign direct investment screening authority. At present, there is no firm timetable for that approval to be granted. All other conditions have been met, and once final approval is secured, the transaction will be considered final.

Occupational Pension Funds: the lesson from abroad, many contributors, starting early, saving systematically

The reform of occupational pensions introduced by Labour Minister Niki Kerameus, and voted through yesterday, brings Greece closer to an approach that has been applied for years in several developed economies: the second pillar works better when it doesn’t involve a small number of employees saving large amounts, but a large number of people saving systematically over a long period. In Britain, for example, workplace pensions operate with a minimum total contribution of 8%, of which the employer pays at least 3%. In Poland, Employee Capital Plans start at 2% from the employee and 1.5% from the employer. In New Zealand, KiwiSaver now has a standard rate of 3.5% for employees, with a matching minimum employer contribution. The underlying philosophy is the same everywhere: broad access, employer participation, systematic contributions and enough time for savings to build up. One of the most significant changes in the new Greek framework moves in this same direction: the ability to create open occupational pension funds, so that employees from different companies can take part under the same umbrella, giving access to the second pillar even to companies too small to set up a fund of their own. The reform was also preceded by extensive dialogue with social partners and market bodies, with broad convergence on its main direction. The ministry says more than 90% of proposals from those bodies were incorporated into the bill. That may ultimately be the most important lesson from abroad, and the real challenge for Greece. The success of the second pillar doesn’t depend on a few people saving a lot. It depends on the many being able to save, starting early and continuing systematically for years.

Gold production unit at Skouries to be inaugurated in October

According to reports, the Prime Minister will officially inaugurate the gold production unit at Skouries in October. The first copper and gold concentrate is due to come out of the mountain in Chalkidiki in the third quarter of 2026, with commercial operation expected to follow by the end of the year. The Skouries project represents an investment of 1.3 billion euros, with more than 3 billion euros invested across the entire Kassandra complex. The mine has a projected 20 year lifespan, with average annual production of 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper. Exports are expected to reach up to 20 billion euros by the end of the project. Greece is becoming a significant metals producer for Europe. Copper and gold are critical raw materials for the green and digital transition, electric vehicles and data centres. The benefits for the region are also substantial: mining fees from the Olympias mine alone have reached a cumulative 55 million euros since 2018, and Skouries will now add to that total, with 40% going directly to the Municipality of Aristotelis. More than 2 billion dollars in state revenue is expected over the project’s lifetime, plus 80 million dollars for social programmes. Around 5,500 jobs will be created, with wages notably above the industry average, while mining in 2026 bears little resemblance to that of the past: dry tailings storage, continuous water monitoring and ESG standards.

Expectations grow for a Motor Oil dividend

On a day of losses for the Athens Stock Exchange, Motor Oil shares bucked the trend, closing yesterday at a new record high and breaking through the psychological barrier of 60 euros for the first time, ending the session up 3.74% at 61 euros. The refiner’s rally wiped out losses from the previous two sessions, pushing its total return for the year close to an impressive 95% and lifting the group’s market capitalisation to 6.76 billion euros. The market rewarded not just what management said at Wednesday’s conference call, but above all what it didn’t say. Asked whether an extraordinary dividend was on the way, Petros Tzannetakis replied that an extraordinary dividend “is not the company’s usual practice”, but that over the past 10 to 15 years, “when profits are higher, the dividend is higher too”, and that the market should expect “a slightly higher interim dividend and a higher final dividend”. Tzannetakis gave no figure. The market began doing its own sums, pen and paper in hand. For the 2025 financial year, Motor Oil paid out 1.75 euros per share (an interim dividend of 0.35 euros in January, with the remaining 1.40 euros in July), totalling 193.9 million euros. At the current price of 61 euros, that 1.75 euros gives a yield of 2.9%, below the 4 to 5% the stock usually offers. To return to that level, it would need a dividend of 2.4 to 3 euros per share, or 270 to 340 million euros. And the money is there: net profits for the half year came to 689.3 million euros, against 163.4 million euros a year earlier, equivalent to more than 6 euros per share over six months. Net debt fell to 814 million euros from 1.58 billion euros at the end of 2025, the parent company swung to net cash of 239 million euros, leverage stands at 0.5 times, and this year’s capital expenditure has been cut to 420 million euros from 650 million euros. Less investment, less debt, more cash. The machine is working in shareholders’ favour. The second half of the year reinforces the market’s expectations. Refining margins rose further in the third quarter. Motor Oil’s rally is also being helped by the stock’s official return to the MSCI Greece Standard index from next Tuesday, 1 September, effective after the close of trading on 31 August. Two years after being dropped from the index in August 2024, Motor Oil becomes the tenth Greek stock in the MSCI’s Greek elite, boosting the domestic energy sector’s profile and attracting significant inflows from international institutional portfolios.

GEK TERNA hits new high after breaking through 47 euros

GEK TERNA closed at a historic high, breaking through the 47 euro barrier on a closing basis for the first time in its history. The stock ended the session at 47.18 euros, with an intraday high of 47.42 euros, marking three consecutive days of gains and surpassing its previous record set last July, when it briefly traded above 48 euros intraday without holding those levels at the close. The stock’s impressive run reflects strong investor confidence in the group’s transformation and its solid portfolio of concessions and infrastructure. Since the start of the year, the shares have gained 85.6%, lifting GEK TERNA’s total market capitalisation to 5.61 billion euros and cementing its place among the top stocks on the Athens Stock Exchange.

A shameful amendment for lignite

The day before yesterday, at midday, as Parliament reconvened, Paris Koukoulopoulos tabled an amendment seeking to keep Units III and IV at Agios Dimitrios open at least until 2030, Unit V until 2040, and Ptolemaida V until 2050. Not only that, but the amendment proposes taking lignite plants out of the energy exchange altogether, placing them in an “absolute priority” dispatch system and paying them at cost. On top of that, any Public Power Corporation (PPC) executive who attempts to shut these units down early would face prosecution for breach of duty, a felony offence. The amendment was clearly timed to pre-empt the Prime Minister’s tour of Florina, Ptolemaida and Kozani. The first response came from Deputy Minister Nikos Tsafos, on X, with figures of his own. Agios Dimitrios produces at a cost of around 200 euros per megawatt hour, and Ptolemaida V at 130 euros per megawatt hour, based on today’s carbon costs. It isn’t the energy exchange that makes lignite expensive, but the cost of CO2 allowances. The obvious question the amendment doesn’t answer naturally follows. If you pay “at cost” for something that costs more than the market price, who pays the difference? Presumably the consumer’s bill. The phasing out of lignite began in 2005, and two thirds of it was completed before 2019. Nobody imposed it on Greece at the United Nations. Ptolemaida V itself, a 1.6 billion euro investment, operated at just 20% of its capacity in 2025. A unit that runs one hour in five isn’t baseload, nor is it even a reserve. Reserve capacity costs money. PPC puts the cost of the 8 to 10 month extension being requested at 130 to 150 million euros.

A new company from Risvas

With the gradual return to normality comes a revival of business activity too. The day before yesterday, Achilleas Risvas of Dromeus Capital set up a new company. It is called “Greco Papagou 1 Real Estate Investments M.A.E.”, based on Kifisias Avenue, at Dromeus’s offices. Its founder and sole shareholder is Achilleas-Sofoklis Risvas, and the company’s purpose is exclusively the acquisition, management, operation and sale of real estate, the acquisition of land for the construction of buildings and the management, operation and sale of those buildings, as well as the acquisition of unfinished or partly built properties for completion, operation and sale. The new company’s share capital stands at 1,070,000 euros, divided into an equal number of shares with a nominal value of one euro each. In practice, the share capital was formed through Risvas’s own contribution in kind of real estate, specifically a 504 square metre plot in Papagou, on Blessa Street, which is fully buildable. On the company’s board, Achilleas Risvas takes on the role of Managing Director, Nikolaos Balanis is Chairman, and Chrysanthos Panteli is a member, with the latter two both executives at Dromeus Capital. The investment group has been highly active in real estate in recent years, with its most recent deals including a preliminary agreement with the National Bank of Greece for a long term strategic partnership worth 400 million euros to manage a large portfolio of commercial properties, as well as Project Olive, which is moving ahead together with Apto to build a data centre in the Spata area.

Greek shipowners order 321 vessels and buy 228 second hand ones in 12 months

The international shipping market may be operating in an environment of geopolitical uncertainty, but Greek shipowners show no sign of slowing down. On the contrary, they are buying, selling and ordering vessels at such a pace that a major renewal of the Greek owned fleet can be seen behind the numbers. In the past week alone, Greek interests were linked to the purchase of the Supramax Global Oriole for 19.5 million dollars, and the MR tanker Maersk Kate for around 22 million dollars. At the same time, Greek portfolios reportedly sold the Efraim A, Amaryllis and Gramos, with the latter changing hands for 34.5 million dollars. The picture in the shipyards is even more striking. Centrofin Management is linked to two 6,000 TEU containerships at Hengli Heavy Industries, Navios to three 310,000 deadweight tonne VLCCs, Evalend Shipping to four 73,500 deadweight tonne tankers at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, and Dynacom Tankers Management to four 306,000 deadweight tonne VLCCs at Hengli. Over the past 12 months, Greek interests have ordered 321 newbuilds, bought 228 second hand vessels and sold 319. This is a reshuffling of forces in motion, with an eye already on 2028 to 2030. Those in Brussels who think the debate over the next package of sanctions against Russia will be a routine continuation of previous rounds have probably not fully accounted for the Greek factor. Because this time, Athens isn’t just voicing its familiar concerns about the impact of the measures on European shipping’s competitiveness. There is also accumulated frustration.

The phone calls to Maximos Mansion and the message to Brussels

Those in Brussels who believe the next package of sanctions against Russia will pass as a natural continuation of previous ones may need to redo their calculations. This time, the Greek factor enters the negotiation carrying extra weight: intense frustration within the Greek shipping community over Ukrainian strikes on Greek owned commercial vessels in the Black Sea. Shipping circles even discussed issuing a public statement condemning the attacks. In the end, no statement was issued, but that doesn’t mean the matter is closed. The message has reached the right people, and the government is well aware of the mood within Greek shipping. The argument being made is specific: Greek shipping cannot be asked to bear the weight of increasingly strict European restrictions while also watching its commercial vessels come under fire in military operations. Any new European sanctions require unanimity, and Maximos Mansion is not writing a blank cheque for measures that would simply shift cargo and shipping activity to competitors in third countries. Greek shipowners are not calling for a change in Europe’s line towards Moscow. But they are asking for two things: protection for commercial shipping, and sanctions that don’t end up as a European own goal. Until the cards are laid on the table in Brussels, then, what is said over the phone between Greek shipping companies, Maximos Mansion and Brussels will matter more than any official statements. That’s where the game is being played right now.

France is the new Italy. Greece borrows more cheaply than both

The Financial Times reported yesterday something bond markets have known since June: French 10 year government debt has, for most of the summer, paid a higher yield than Italian debt. Barclays’ head of European rates strategy, Rohan Khanna, sums it up simply: if you ask the market who Europe’s weak link is, it will point to France. Italy’s debt has fallen from 154% of GDP in 2020 to 139% this year. France’s has risen from 114% to 117%. Rome now runs a primary surplus and has brought its deficit down from 8% in 2022, the year Giorgia Meloni took office, to just above 3% last year. Paris has a deficit above 5%, and the new Finance Minister, Roland Lescure, promises only to bring it “as close to 5% as possible”. The budget plan is due to be tabled on 30 September, in a National Assembly where two governments fell in comparable battles in 2024 and 2025, and where Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu only got this year’s budget through after freezing pension reform until after 2027. Political risk is now a dominant factor in analysts’ assessments. Presidential elections are due in 2027, with polls pointing to a second round contest between Jean Luc Melenchon and Marine Le Pen, “the worst possible outcome” according to Mizuho. The Japanese, traditionally major holders of French debt, are cutting their positions. Legal and General is underweight France and shifting towards Italy. Fidelity sees the risk premium on long term French bonds nearing eurozone crisis levels. Greece’s 10 year yield hasn’t gone above 4% since the crisis began, and it now borrows 13 basis points more cheaply than Italy and 17 more cheaply than France. Greek debt is expected to fall below Italy’s this year, and below France’s and Belgium’s by 2031. A former member of the so called PIIGS is now borrowing more cheaply than what was once considered safe haven France. A country’s bond market reputation can be lost with a single budget, but it takes ten to rebuild it.

Coca-Cola returns to Paris Saint Germain

Alexandros Kavasilas, a senior Greek executive and vice president at Coca-Cola Europe, has announced a major comeback. Coca-Cola had partnered with French and European champions Paris Saint Germain, winners of the Champions League, for 20 years, until 2024. After a two year split, a new global partnership through to 2029 has now been announced, starting on 4 September. PSG posted revenues of 837 million euros for the 2024/25 season, the fourth highest in the world, behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Among the top 20 clubs, commercial revenues reached 5.3 billion euros, 43% of total income, now overtaking television revenues, which stand at 4.7 billion euros. The value of the Coca-Cola deal was not disclosed, but the mechanics were. Coca-Cola will release 400,000 limited edition cans in PSG’s colours from 12 October, available in more than 650 Carrefour stores across Ile-de-France, and will open a new immersive fan space at the Parc des Princes. Sponsors, in other words, are no longer just buying advertising boards, they are buying shelf space, checkout space and stadium space all at once. For Coca-Cola, the partnership with Paris Saint Germain adds to its presence at major international events, while PSG is tapping into Coca-Cola’s distribution power to reach beyond its own ticket holders. Powerade takes on the “tough” sporting identity, while Coca-Cola takes the “culture”, fashion, music and lifestyle, which PSG has been selling as a product for a decade.

New rules in America, or how Deloitte got caught out

The headline is striking, but the backstory is even more so. Deloitte, one of the Big Four global accounting and consulting firms, has agreed to pay 21.5 million dollars to the United States government after being accused of defrauding it. Until recently, major American companies took pride in their diversity policies, hiring and promoting more women and more people from minority backgrounds, the well known DEI approach (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). Today, in Washington, the very same thing is being treated as fraud against the state. The Department of Justice accused Deloitte of setting internal staffing targets based on race and gender for nearly 10 years, from 2017 onwards, while at the same time certifying in its contracts with the federal government that it did not discriminate. Deloitte denied the allegation but agreed to the settlement. In the United States, anyone taking on government work certifies that hiring and promotion decisions are made “without regard” to race or gender. The Trump administration’s position was that if a company had internal diversity targets, that certification was false, meaning the money it received from the state was obtained through fraud. It relied on a law targeting those who overcharge the government, with penalties of up to three times the damages involved. Facing that kind of threat, settling was cheaper than going to trial. The same law rewards whoever files the complaint. As a result, an organisation campaigning against affirmative action, led by activist Edward Blum, will receive 4.3 million dollars from the settlement. With that kind of funding behind it, the next complaint is only a matter of time. Deloitte isn’t the only case. IBM paid 17 million dollars in April. Every company working for the American government now risks similar legal trouble. Values shift along with governments.

30 year mortgages at an interest rate of 6.78%

Before he was re-elected and returned to the White House, Donald Trump repeatedly said that affordable housing for Americans was a top priority. American mortgages typically run for 30 years. Today, the average rate on a 30 year mortgage has climbed to 6.78%. That means anyone who borrowed at 3% a few years ago, say in 2022, isn’t selling, isn’t moving and isn’t refinancing today. The housing market hasn’t frozen, but it’s cooling uncomfortably. Applications for home purchase loans are down 5% on last year, for a second consecutive month. Earlier this year, President Trump ordered the two government backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to buy 200 billion dollars worth of bonds in order to bring rates down. It worked, briefly: within a week last January, mortgage rates fell to 6.06%, a four year low, and the White House celebrated. Then came the war with Iran in late February, oil prices rose, and with them fears of inflation. Rates went straight back to where they started. Inflation remains at 3.7%. For 65 consecutive months, US inflation has stayed above the 2% target. Markets are pricing in a 40% chance of a further rate rise from the Federal Reserve in September. The Treasury is trying to hold down its own borrowing costs by buying back its bonds, but the market shrugged that off within two days. The Fed’s new chair, Kevin Warsh, is set to give his first major speech at Jackson Hole, with the 30 year US Treasury bond having touched 5.31%, its highest level since 2007. Yields did fall at one point, when news broke that Pakistani mediators had made progress in peace talks with Iran. In the end, it seems the size of Americans’ mortgage payments is being decided in Islamabad.

The global order is unravelling, and the answer is ad hoc alliances

A former central banker now governs Canada. A professor of European institutions is President of Finland. The two of them recently co-signed a manifesto in The Economist, and markets would do well to read between the lines. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finnish President Alexander Stubb argue in their joint article that the global order built after 1945 is unravelling, and that existing institutions are unable to halt the decline. Their answer is neither nostalgia for multilateralism nor raw realpolitik, but what they call “values based realism”: deep integration with those who share common values, and cool, pragmatic engagement with everyone else. The new term now circulating in international relations is “plurilateralism”, a dense web of ad hoc coalitions that operate issue by issue, a “variable geometry” of purpose driven alliances rather than fixed institutions. The first example is the “coalition of the willing” for Ukraine’s postwar security. It was followed by the European SAFE programme for rapid joint defence production, the G7 alliance on critical raw materials, and future coalitions likely to form around artificial intelligence security, quantum computing and energy. The two leaders, the Canadian and the Finn, see power now split between the Global West, the Global East and the Global South, with a fourth technological superpower built on data and algorithms emerging “without borders and almost without rules”. It all echoes the distant year of 1848: “Middle powers of the world, unite!” Greece is a middle power, with shipping, energy hubs and a defence industry now being rebuilt. This time, perhaps, it won’t be institutions that protect us, but the coalitions we manage to join in time.