Kyriakides Georgopoulos has advised GlaxoSmithKline on the EUR 12 million sale and partial leaseback of its corporate headquarters office building to the ATHEX listed Intercontinental International REIC.
According to KG, “the transaction, which initiated following a private tender procedure concluded in October 2020, closed on June 3, 2021.”
KG’s team was led by Partner Theodore Rakintzis. The firm did not reply to our inquiry about the deal.
Zepos & Yannopoulos and CMS France have advised Axa Mediterranean Holding on the sale of Greek subsidiary Axa Insurance to Italian insurance group Generali for a consideration of EUR 167 million.
Zepos & Yannopoulos’s team included Partners Anastasia Makri, Elina Filippou, and Alex Karopoulos, Counsel Kitty Fragalexi, and Senior Associates Smaragda Spyrou and Elina Belouli.
CMS’ team was led by Partner Jean-Robert Bousquet and included Counsel Benoit Gomel.
Zepos & Yannopoulos did not reply to our inquiry about the deal.
Drakopoulos has advised the TUI Group on its sale of 100% of the shares in an unspecified SPV, which owns a hotel and a 75,000-square-meter plot of land in Ermioni, Greece, to an unidentified consortium of investors.
According to Drakopoulos, the hotel consists of over 100 rooms and suites and 50 bungalows.
The Drakopoulos team consisted of Managing Partner Panagiotis Drakopoulos and Partner Georgia Konstantinidou. The firm was unable to disclose further information about the deal.
Bernitsas Law has acted as Greek law counsel to industrial and energy company Mytilineos SA on its issuance of EUR 500 million aggregate principal amount senior notes due 2026, and on the listing of the notes on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF market.
The Bernitsas Law team was led by Partner Nikos Papachristopoulos, assisted by Junior Associate Kelly Hatzigaki.
Greece’s real estate sector has always contributed significantly to the development of the nation’s economy. It has to be noted that Greece is a country where home ownership rates are among the highest in Europe. Also, real estate was traditionally considered by most Greeks as a rather safe investment. Thus, real estate is favorably affected by tourism, which is another huge sector of the Greek economy. All of these factors led to the sector’s remarkable growth, which peaked in 2007.
However, during the subsequent decade-long crisis, the real estate market experienced an unprecedented decline, with prices for housing diving by almost 42% by 2018. Most Greeks turned their backs on real estate, as heavy taxes were attached to it. The most important of these is the annual Property Tax, which was introduced in 2011, among other austerity measures implemented in order for Greece to avoid bankruptcy and the withdrawal from the Eurozone. It is estimated that, during that decade, almost 280,000 Greeks rejected property inheritances, unable to pay the relevant taxes.
Fortunately, starting in 2018, the real estate market in Greece has begun to recover. More specifically, in 2019, in urban areas of Greece, house prices increased by almost 9.32%, which is substantially more than the 2.35% increase the previous year. The growth of real estate in 2019 was the highest since 2006, according to official data from the Bank of Greece. Quarter-on-quarter, house prices in urban areas were up 2.23% in the third quarter of 2019.
The revival of the real estate market was the result of many factors. Most important is the residency program introduced by the Greek State – the Greek Golden Visa Program – for non-EU citizens who acquire or rent real estate in Greece worth at least EUR 250,000. Both the investors and their family members are entitled to obtain residence permits in Greece and access free travel though the Schengen zone without physical presence in Greece being a prerequisite. The residence permits are valid for five years and can be renewed, providing that the investor retains the investment. The Greek Golden Visa program is similar to those of Spain and Portugal, but it is much more attractive due to the low minimum price of only EUR 250,000, whereas in those other countries the minimum price required is much higher.
It is noted that, according to the Bank of Greece, there was, in 2019, a net inflow of foreign capital from investors of approximately EUR 1.5 billion – an increase of 28.5% over the year before. Most of this inflow was invested in housing properties, either in the center of Athens and the southern suburbs, or at popular tourist destinations (such as Crete, the Ionian and Aegean islands, and the Peloponnese).
Another factor that has helped revive the real estate market in Greece is the three-year suspension of VAT payments on new building permits and unsold properties built after 2006. Moreover, the reduction of Property Tax – the so-called “ENFIA” – has also contributed to the growth of the real estate market. In 2019, the ENFIA for individuals was reduced 30% for properties valued up to EUR 60,000, 27% for properties valued up to EUR 70,000, 25% for properties valued up to EUR 80,000, 20% for properties valued up to EUR 1.0 million, and 10% for properties valued at more than EUR 1.0 million. Another reduction of approximately 10% that will apply to all property owners from the year 2021 has been announced, although it remains to be seen if it will finally be implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic and current financial crisis.
At the moment, and despite the pandemic, housing prices in Greece – especially in Athens – remain stable, with most involved parties believing that when normality recovers, the real estate market will continue to drive growth.
It is estimated that large property investments which take place in Greece currently, like Hellinikon, Athens Riviera, Tatoi, etc., will help not only to recover the losses sustained by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, but also will boost the real estate market to levels even higher than in 2019. In addition, it has to be noted that Greece’s exemplary handling of the COVID-19 crisis has created a positive image of the country in the international media and investors are expected to come in the post COVID-19 period.
Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners Law Frim is heavily experienced in both legal and tax elements of Real Estate matters. Feel free to contact us for more details.
By Yanos Gramatidis, Partner, and Sonia Tzavella, Senior Associate, Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners
This Article was originally published in Issue 8.2 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
Norton Rose Fulbright has advised PPC Renewables S.A. and its Iliaka Parka Dytikis Makedonias 1 S.A. subsidiary on financing for a EUR 8.7 million project for the construction of a 15MW photovoltaic park in Ptolemaida, Greece, from National Bank of Greece and Eurobank. The European Investment Bank has also been provided with the right to participate in the financings.
PPCR is the renewables subsidiary of Public Power Corporation S.A. According to Norton Rose Fulbright, the company “has an aspiring development plan to reach 1.5GW of renewable installed capacity by 2023. This financing is the first leg of a broader financing arrangement to PPCR, which has plans to construct a nexus of photovoltaic parks totaling a 230MV installed capacity in the region of Kozani where a number of decommissioned lignite mines are located.”
Norton Rose Fulbright’s team in Athens included Counsel Dimitrios Rampos, Senior Associate John Koukoulakis, and Lawyers Vaia Karathodorou and Vicky Zambaza.
Norton Rose Fulbright did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.
The Koutalidis Law Firm has advised Alpha Bank on its demerger by way of a hive-down of its banking sector to a new banking entity.
According to Koutalidis, the demerger, which was completed on April 16th, 2021, “constitutes an integral part of Alpha Bank’s Strategic Plan 2020-2022, aiming at the improvement of its financial structure through the reduction of its non-performing exposures and cost of risk, as well as through the transfer of its banking business sector to an entity with substantially improved asset quality.”
Lilian Kontou has joined the TAE – SOL Group in Athens as Legal Director.
At the beginning of her career, Kontou was a freelance attorney-at-law from 1992 to 1997. She joined PwC in September of 1997 and spent the following six years as Senior Manager within the firm’s Tax & Legal Services Department. She moved to Air Liquide Hellas in March of 2004, where she was Legal & HR Director until December 2016, Legal Director from January to August 2017, and Legal Director South East Europe from September 2017 until joining the TAE-SOL Group in February 2021.
Originally reported by CEE In-House Matters.
DLA Piper, working with Potamitis Vekris in Greece, Bojanovic & Partners in Serbia, and Tashko Pustina in Albania, has advised Team.Blue on its acquisition of the Enartia Group from founders Aggela Anthoulaki, Dimitris Anthoulakis, and Frank Maounis. The Kyriakides Georgopoulos Law Firm advised the sellers.
The Enartia Group is a provider of web hosting and domain registration services in Greece, with subsidiaries in Serbia and Albania. It serves about 97,000 customers through its Papaki and Top.Host brands, and it currently manages over 365,000 active domain names.
Team.blue is a digital enabler for companies and entrepreneurs present in 15 countries. The group was created through the merger of the Combell Group, TransIP Group, and the Register Group in 2019. Team.blue serves over two million customers in Europe and has more than 1,000 experts to support them.
DLA Piper’s team consisted of Hamburg-based Partner Nils Krause, Senior Associate Jasper von Georg, and Transaction Lawyer Dan Li, and Frankfurt-based Partners Semin O and Bjorn Enders and Associates Anastasia Max and Alexander Rosch.
The Potamitis Vekris team included Partner Euripides Ioannou, Senior Associate Dimitra Rachouti, and Associates Vasilis Tsintavis and Magda Zionga.
Bojanovic & Partners’ team consisted of Partners Vladimir Bojanovic and Tanja Dugonjic.
Kyriakides Georgopoulos Law Firm’s team was led by Partner Elisabeth Eleftheriades and included Senior Associate Angeliki Chalikia.
Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised Intrum Justicia and Intrum Hellas on Project Phoenix, a securitization of a non-performing residential mortgage loan portfolio of gross book value of circa EUR 1.92 billion owned by Piraeus Bank.
According to Zeya, “the transaction is one of the first of its type, as Piraeus Bank has filed an application for the inclusion of the senior notes of Phoenix under the Hercules Asset Protection Scheme (Hercules scheme). On December 28, 2020, Piraeus Bank announced that it entered into an agreement with Intrum Justitia, for the sale of 30% of the mezzanine and junior notes issued by Phoenix. Piraeus Bank shall retain 100% of the senior notes, as well as 5% of the mezzanine and junior notes and, subject to the necessary approvals, will distribute the remaining 65% of the mezzanine and junior notes to its shareholders.” According to the firm, “the implied valuation of the portfolio based on the nominal value of the senior notes and the sale price of the mezzanine notes corresponds to circa 50% of the total gross book value of the portfolio. The portfolio will continue to be serviced by Intrum Hellas, which was also the interim servicer of the portfolio. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur within 2021.”
Zepos & Yannopoulos’s team was led by Partner Christina Papanikolopoulou and included Partners Maria Zoupa, Alex Karopoulos, and Elena Papachristou, Senior Associate Paris Tzoumas, and Associates Athina Palli, Myrto Tsoumalakou, and Vivian Efthymiou.
Zepos & Yannopoulos could not provide additional information on the deal.