Winter appears to have arrived earlier than usual this year, although the weather may yet turn again and spare households in Athens and southern Greece from switching on the heating while heating oil prices remain so high. On the subject of prices and the cold, the government will unveil its first package of support measures on Wednesday. It will not cover heating oil, however. In essence, it will extend the fuel pump subsidy funded by the state and the refineries at roughly its current level. Support for heating oil will be considered on 14 October, when the winter heating season formally begins, by which point there should be a clearer picture of where international prices have settled.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, meanwhile, is back from a productive five days in the United States, where, besides attending the UN General Assembly, he met and spoke with a string of major international investors. He now returns to more routine business. As noted a few days ago, he must handle a business dispute that indirectly concerns the government, since the state is the main party involved, and which appears to have taken on a transatlantic dimension. In a pre-election year, such commercial rows are neither the only nor the most serious problem a prime minister faces, but they are an unwelcome distraction, particularly when the fallout could be significant. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also due in Athens next week, bringing far weightier matters to the table, from national issues and defence to relations with Turkey. More broadly, Mitsotakis faces what anyone in charge, from a shopkeeper to a head of government, faces after stepping away even briefly: a loss of discipline, visible in off-message remarks by ministers and assorted internal party squabbles as the election approaches. The most pressing issue remains the cost of living, which is likely to worsen as oil prices climb.

Regional visits

Beyond a series of meetings today, Mitsotakis will also travel outside the capital this week. His schedule, which has yet to be confirmed, includes a visit to Aspropyrgos, the industrial area west of Athens, on Tuesday, and to Pieria in northern Greece on Friday, a notoriously difficult constituency for the ruling conservative New Democracy (ND) party. He will also visit Mount Olympus, which was recently added to Unesco’s World Heritage list.

Decisions on the party

Alongside recalibrating the pace of government, Mitsotakis must make decisions on a reshuffle within ND. One outstanding matter concerns the party’s two deputy press spokespeople. The Prime Minister was far from pleased that the name of Christos Lagkadianos, earmarked for the role alongside Porfyllenia Kanellopoulou, was leaked, and the matter will now be discussed. Decisions are also pending on candidates to be announced in the coming weeks, and on changes to the party’s structure being driven by ND secretary Kostas Kyranakis.

What Hatzidakis is doing in Toulouse

Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis travels to Toulouse today with a busy agenda for the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-right grouping to which ND belongs. He will be a keynote speaker in a debate on the reindustrialisation of Europe. More significantly, as head of the EPP’s Working Group on Competitiveness, he will present the related resolution to the assembly. In other words, he will address the biggest problem facing the European economy and set out the centre-right’s policy response to it, a high-profile appearance before a European audience that further builds his standing in the field.

A hint from Messinia on the Samaras party

Former prime minister Antonis Samaras spent the long weekend in Messinia, in the southwestern Peloponnese, for a memorial service held in Pylos on Sunday marking one year since the death of his daughter, Lena Samara. While there, he met his core supporters, longstanding allies and figures tipped for the new party he says he will launch. Over several dinners, he told them, in effect, that “society is asking for the party to be created”. He did not give a timetable, preferring to let rumours circulate so that his public interventions gain extra momentum, rather than being drawn into day-to-day debate and having to answer for the figures he eventually unveils. In reality, candidate announcements are unlikely to begin immediately after the launch in any case. At the dinners, he spoke about politics in broad terms, covering the economy and foreign policy rather than local issues in Messinia or the Peloponnese. What is noticeable across the region is that former Peloponnese regional governor Petros Tatoulis is mobilising local officials in support of Samaras, and may himself stand as a candidate in Arcadia.

Piraeus Bank seals IASO deal

The agreement between Oaktree Capital Management and Piraeus Bank for the acquisition of IASO, the Athens private hospital group, from its holding company Hemithea has reportedly been finalised. Official announcements are imminent, after which the deal will go to the Hellenic Competition Commission for approval. The move takes Piraeus Bank into healthcare services, a step that also supports its major recent acquisition, the insurer Ethniki Insurance, whose costs the bank is determined to reduce. That was one of the key questions put by analysts at every roadshow the bank attended. The IASO announcement should therefore follow shortly, as due diligence and all outstanding issues have been resolved and the two sides have shaken hands.

Grimaldi: no interest in buying Attica Group

The timing of Emanuele Grimaldi’s remarks is telling. Speaking at the 27th Euromed Convention, “From Land to Sea”, in Cagliari, Sardinia, the chief executive of Italy’s Grimaldi Group set out a clear outline of his plans for the Greek market. At a time when there is intense speculation in the ferry industry that Attica Group, Greece’s largest coastal shipping company and operator of Blue Star Ferries, Superfast Ferries and Hellenic Seaways, could be put up for sale, the Italian shipowner made clear he has no wish to expand further on Greek routes. His plans are confined to the Piraeus, Milos and Heraklion route and the Adriatic. Rhodes, the Cyclades and inter-island connections are not part of the plan. “We don’t operate between smaller islands,” he said. The comment was not a direct response to a question about Attica, but it is unlikely to go unnoticed. Any acquisition of Greece’s biggest ferry group would bring Grimaldi squarely onto the very routes he says he wants to avoid. The question circulating in shipping offices is simple: why buy an extensive Aegean network he says he does not need? Either the Attica scenarios do not concern him, or any hypothetical involvement would require an entirely different structure. For now, Grimaldi appears to be ruling himself out.

Evangelos Kotsovinos heads to Goldman Sachs

The resignation of Evangelos Kotsovinos as an independent non-executive member of Eurobank’s board, and from the committees on which he sat, did not come as a bolt from the blue for the bank. Behind his departure lies a senior appointment at Goldman Sachs, which would have created a conflict of interest had he remained at Eurobank. It is notable that international banks are recruiting senior figures from Greek banking as they look to expand their operations in the country.

Athens Stock Exchange half-year snapshot: net profits up 39.2%

Three days remain, including today, before the deadline for publishing half-year results, and 48% of listed companies (by number) have yet to report. The 76 companies that have published so far, including newly listed shipping firms, show combined turnover up 18.8% to €53.6bn, operating profit up 43.2% to €10.26bn and net profit up 39.2% to €7.53bn. Commercial and industrial companies are the main driver of profit growth, with a 76% increase and operating margins widening by 327 basis points. Public Power Corporation (PPC) and the refiners account for most of the improvement, although the remaining listed companies are not lagging far behind. So far, 88% of those reporting are profitable, and 71% of these improved on last year’s half-year performance. The figures are unlikely to change significantly, as most of the heavyweight index stocks have already reported, with the possible exceptions of the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) and Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTH). Companies that fail to publish by the morning of Thursday 1 October will have their shares temporarily suspended from trading.

Monthly result hangs in the balance

The Athens Stock Exchange’s performance for the month looks set to be decided in the final session of September, as the market is less than 1% away from August’s closing level of 2,677 points. The run of monthly gains currently stands at five. Average daily turnover in September is running at €559m, an 18-year high.

Fraport Greece profits and dividends soar

Fraport Greece “A” recently held an extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders approved a dividend of up to €50m. The company operates seven of the 14 regional airports run by the Fraport group in Greece, a number that will rise to 15 with the new Kalamata concession. It is responsible for the airports of Aktion, Zakynthos, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Corfu, Kefalonia and Chania, and the €50m payout comes from 2025 profits. Last year, the company’s after-tax profit exceeded €69.23m on total revenue of €366.4m. A similar decision at the same time last year produced a total dividend of €30m for 2023 (€9m) and 2024 (€21m). The other package of seven airports, Kos, Mytilene, Mykonos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini and Skiathos, falls under Fraport Greece “B”, which posted after-tax profit of €34.78m in 2025 on revenue of €277.1m.

Supermarkets: a big table with few seats

Turning to retail, the Greek supermarket map now has four tiers. On the top tier, alone, sits the Sklavenitis group, with 2025 turnover of €6.13bn (up from €5.56bn) and operating profit of €392.1m, although net profit fell to €99.5m from €108.7m. The parent company’s turnover passed €5bn for the first time. Even at the top, size is growing faster than profitability. On the second tier is Lidl Hellas which, as a general partnership, does not publish accounts but is estimated at €2.5bn. The third tier is home to AB Vassilopoulos, at around €2bn, joined this year by Masoutis. Its acquisition of the Kritikos chain (ANEDIK Kritikos) was completed at the end of May, on condition set by the Competition Commission that 53 stores be sold in areas of high local concentration. Standalone 2025 sales of €1.203bn for Masoutis and €836m for Kritikos give a combined base of around €2.04bn. AB is now within touching distance, while Masoutis already leads in network size with 1,200 stores. According to reports, the deal between Giannis Masoutis and Angelos Kritikos was worth €190m in total, of which €100m was paid in cash and around €90m took the form of Kritikos loans assumed by the buyer. That €100m in cash bought €836m of turnover, or 12 cents per euro of sales. Kritikos was loss-making in 2025, with an EBITDA margin of around 3.5%, compared with roughly 6% at Masoutis. That gap is the real bet. If the Kritikos network reaches the Masoutis margin, the buyer adds €20m a year in EBITDA from the same stores. The market as a whole turned over €16.24bn in 2025, up 7.1% according to NielsenIQ, with ready meals passing €1bn for the first time. The retail table keeps getting bigger, but the number of seats does not.

A belated premium for Athens Exchange shares

Shares in Hellenic Exchanges, the Athens Stock Exchange operator (EXAE) now controlled by Euronext, have reached €10.8, a 220-month high, despite a reduced free float. Based on the exchange ratio in the earlier share-for-share public offer (20 EXAE shares for each Euronext share), the stock is trading at a 34% premium. Although there is currently no active exchange right, the widening gap may warrant attention.

AS Company’s golden portfolio

AS Company, the Thessaloniki-based toy maker and distributor, valued its investments at €12.19m at the end of June, down 4.3% from €12.75m at the end of 2025. The bulk, €9.90m or 81.2% of the portfolio, was placed in foreign securities, while €1.35m, or 11.1%, was in domestic securities. Holdings in foreign mutual fund units came to €531,000 and Athens-listed shares to €411,000, just 3.4% of the financial portfolio. By currency, 60% of investments were in euros and the remaining 40%, or €4.88m, in dollars. During the half-year, the company made new investments of €2.09m and sold securities worth €2.68m, while portfolio valuation produced a gain of €89,000. It favours short-term, high-grade bonds to limit credit risk and uses no derivatives for hedging. The positive return helped improve the group’s financial result, which came to a profit of €363,000, compared with a loss of €223,000 in the first half of 2025. AS Company also holds investment property with a book value of €2.13m, consisting of two plots in Crete: about 24,100 sq m at Matala, in the Heraklion region, and 31,100 sq m at Plaka, near Elounda. A recent valuation puts their market value around €107,000 above book value, and management is exploring options for developing them. In total, financial investments, investment property and cash reached €28.49m, up from €21.17m at the end of 2025. The mix has shifted markedly towards liquidity, with cash more than doubling to €14.17m, 49.7% of the total, compared with 29.8% at the end of 2025. The investment portfolio and cash together represent almost half of the company’s market capitalisation.

Sarakis branches out into artificial intelligence

Independent MP and lawyer Pavlos Sarakis became known through the Novartis case, for which he received a fee in the US of around €18m, by his own account. As he explained last October on Proti Lexi, the interview programme on Proto Thema’s website, the sum came from the $330m settlement reached between Novartis and the US government. His share amounted to €18m, which was declared and taxed in Greece. He also said at the time that he had paid around €15m in tax over the past decade. He has since made a number of investments, mainly in property. A few days ago, he set up a new company, Sarakis Capital, with initial share capital of €2m divided into 20,000 shares with a nominal value of €100 each. The money was paid in cash by Sarakis himself, the company’s founder and sole shareholder. He sits on the board as a member, with Natalia Karataeva as chair and chief executive, and Theofilos Poulimenos as a non-executive member. The company’s stated objects read like a novel, stretching from property investment to artificial intelligence. They include buying, selling, renting and leasing property in Greece and abroad; managing and exploiting property belonging to the company or to third parties, including financial institutions, portfolio investment companies, real estate investment companies and mutual fund managers; and drawing up studies, research and business plans for its development. They also cover the operation and management of hotels and tourism businesses of every kind. Beyond that, the company may operate and manage taxis, owned or leased, of every type; carry passengers and luggage by road; lease and finance vehicles by any lawful means; and trade in new and used buses, cars and other vehicles. It also plans to provide services in “the prevention, assessment and management of crises and risks, business continuity and recovery, and the drafting of crisis and emergency management plans and protocols”. And, as mentioned, it even extends to AI, providing for “activities in the field of artificial intelligence, including the research, design, implementation, customisation, operation and commercial exploitation of systems, applications, software and digital platforms based on artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation technologies”.

What Interlife’s results showed

Insurer Interlife delivered an excellent set of half-year results, with net insurance income rising 76% to €6.98m. Gains from the valuation and sale of financial investments rose 41.1%. Combined net insurance and investment income reached €15.8m, up 33%. The bottom line after minority interests rose 23% to €13.4m.

OTE surges back above €20

Shares in telecoms group OTE led the blue chips on Friday, jumping 4.85%, their best daily performance in six months. The stock climbed back above the €20 mark to close at €20.1, narrowing the gap with its year high of €20.4. A break above this year’s peak would open the way to levels not seen in 18 years: €20.6 (May 2008) and €21 (February 2008). The strong rise came on heavy trading, with turnover above €41m and volume above 2 million shares. There were also six pre-agreed block trades totalling 349,000 shares, worth €6.84m, at prices between €19.35 and €20.1, confirming strong interest from institutional investors.

Athens International Airport back above €12 after three-day pause

Shares in Athens International Airport (AIA) rebounded swiftly and firmly, returning above €12 and to record territory. After the 18 September index rebalancing linked to the Athens Stock Exchange’s upgrade to developed-market status, AIA hit a record high of €12.27. Despite a three-day correction below €11.5, the stock recovered strongly, rallying 3.6% on Thursday and 2.3% on Friday to close at €12.12, with an intraday high of €12.36. The buying spree was accompanied by strong trading activity, with turnover over the past two sessions exceeding €14.8m and volume above 1.2 million shares.

Profile hits new record of €11

Profile Software continues to break new ground. Just a week after breaking through the psychological €10 barrier, its shares touched €11 for the first time on Friday. The new all-time high was accompanied by growing investor interest, with turnover exceeding €1.4m, the highest daily figure in almost three months, since early July. The rise appears to be underpinned by business growth that is now feeding through to the financial results. The valuation is sky-high, but in the first half of 2026 turnover rose 60% to €32.2m and net profit climbed 63% to €4.9m. The company’s strategy of expansion through acquisitions, its international presence and the integration of artificial intelligence into its products are fuelling expectations that its rapid growth will continue.

Angelicoussis’s powerful 13

The Angelicoussis Group, controlled by Maria Angelicoussis, is expected to add 13 new-technology newbuilds to its fleet by the end of 2026. This is not simply an increase in capacity but a coordinated fleet renewal on three fronts. The delivery programme includes six dual-fuel Suezmax tankers, six LNG carriers and one DP2 shuttle tanker. The vessels are designed for lower emissions, greater energy efficiency and higher operational safety, at a time when technology is starting to separate the strong players of the future from the rest. Angelicoussis is also investing in the people who will run this new generation of ships. Through the group’s own training centre, Delphic, crews receive continuous training in new fuels, advanced systems and more demanding safety requirements.

Greek shipyards seek a 15-year order book

Panos Xenokostas does not speak merely as president of the Association of Greek Shipyards. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of ONEX Shipyards & Technologies, the man who brought Neorion on Syros and Elefsina Shipyards back into operation, and who is now trying to put Greece on the map of naval defence shipbuilding. That is why his proposal for a binding 15-year programme to build ships and submarines for the Hellenic Navy has attracted considerable interest behind the scenes. Behind the institutional language lies a very specific message to the government. The shipyards have been revived, investments have been made and alliances with American and South Korean partners have been built, but the next 15 years of work now need to be locked in. In essence, Xenokostas is asking Greece to stop buying warships as a mere customer and to insist that a large part of their construction, maintenance and upgrades be carried out at home. The target of 70% Greek added value and the mapping of more than 200 companies show that this is not only about the docks at Elefsina and Syros, but about creating an entire defence industrial supply chain. The difficult part now passes to the Prime Minister’s office at Maximos Mansion and the Ministry of National Defence. A binding 15-year programme means funding, specific orders and a political decision to prioritise domestic production. In other words, Greek shipyards want to move from government announcements to a firm order book.

Central banks are no longer buying bonds as they once did

Taxpayers and borrowers are paying for the turmoil in government bond markets through higher interest rates. Berenberg, Germany’s oldest private bank, based in Hamburg with a history dating back to 1590 and a strong research team in London, has published a chart that explains a great deal. The share of government debt held by the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve has fallen by an average of 13 percentage points in five years. The ECB’s share has dropped from 41% in 2021-22 to 24%, the Bank of England’s from 36% to 16%, the Fed’s from 19% to 11% and the Bank of Japan’s from 45% to 38%. In terms of the supply of bonds to private investors, this is equivalent to an extra two to three years of budget deficits. The result has been a rise in the term premium, the additional yield investors demand to hold 10-year bonds rather than rolling over short-term debt. In the US, Germany and the UK, it has risen to around one percentage point. It used to be negative, while before 2008 it often reached two percentage points. Berenberg concludes that the rise in long-term yields has “a little way still to go”. The pressure is greatest in Europe. The Fed has already ended quantitative tightening, and the ECB simply does not reinvest maturing bonds. The Bank of England is the only one actively selling, and it is paying the price. It bought gilts when yields were low and is now selling them at a loss, with the Treasury compensating it immediately to avoid accusations of monetary financing. The bill comes to £15bn to £21bn a year, or 0.6% of GDP, and its remaining holdings have lost £150bn at current prices. The other three central banks are deferring the losses on paper. Greece has no Bank of England, but it does have the ECB. Reinvestments under the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), the only scheme that bought Greek bonds, ended at the close of 2024. Since then, every Greek bond that matures in Frankfurt’s portfolio goes back to the market without its biggest buyer of the past five years, the ECB.

“Transitory” inflation, the central banks’ old “new narrative”

The world’s central bankers have learned to live with inflation well above the 2% that is officially, and in theory, their target. Markets do not seem to disagree, but they are responding with higher interest rates. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury starts the week at 5.18%, its highest since 2007. The S&P 500 is less than 1% below its record high after gaining 1.2% on the week, ending a two-week losing streak. The Nasdaq rose 2.1% and the Dow 0.3%, closing at 51,828 points after three weeks of losses. On Friday, the 10-year yield touched 5.22% intraday, a 19-year high, before easing. The “new narrative” is that all this is “transitory”. Despite far higher rates, a 10-year yield at 5.2% and oil above $90, the market can keep ignoring it all “as long as it believes it is transitory”. The word is the same one the Fed used about inflation in 2021, before dropping it that December. Inflation has been running above the 2% target for more than five years, jobless claims are well below historical averages and the labour market is “stable”. That combination explains why futures are pricing in two more 25 basis point rate rises by January, with a 66% probability of the first coming as early as October. A strong jobs report will no longer be good news for equities. Nor is this only an American story. The Fed is not alone. In September the ECB raised rates to 2.50%, the Bank of Japan to 1.25% and South Africa to 7.25%, while Australia is expected to raise its rate to 4.60% tomorrow. Yet everyone seems to believe the inflationary pressures are “transitory”. The Middle East energy shock has become a synchronised tightening cycle, which is why the dollar is not strengthening as much as might be expected with the 10-year yield at 5.2%.

Samsung’s war with Apple

The advert is provocative and certainly eye-catching. Tim Cook, until recently Apple’s chief executive, appears on screen declaring that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is “the best phone I’ve ever had, mark my words”. It was not a lie, but the speaker was an estate agent with Harcourts in Palmerston North, New Zealand, who shares the name, the glasses, the black shirt and the flat, earnest delivery. Samsung New Zealand filmed him against a white background and saved the clarification “from Palmerston North” for the end. The spot was released just two days after Apple’s 9 September event, which unveiled the iPhone Duo, the first foldable iPhone, priced at $1,999. It was also the first major launch for new chief executive John Ternus, with Cook moving into the role of executive chairman. Samsung’s Fold 8, by contrast, had launched back in July, weighing 201g against the Duo’s 254g, with the same 7.6-inch inner screen. There is plenty going on behind the scenes. Samsung has been selling foldable phones since 2019. Apple’s Duo relies on Samsung Display for its foldable OLED panel, because no other supplier can deliver it to the required specifications and in the volumes needed. The most critical component of Apple’s new product comes from Samsung, which profits from every iPhone Duo sold. Several analysts note that the device is unusually dependent on South Korean technology, and that the high-capacity versions will be extremely expensive. Samsung’s most expensive customer is called Apple. Its cheapest advertiser is called Tim Cook (the one from New Zealand).