The Latsis family agreed on Tuesday to buy a 10% stake in the company operating Greece’s busiest toll road, in the latest demonstration of rising Greek shipping fortunes capturing a widening part of the country’s economy.
The family office controlled by Latsco Shipping principal Marianna Latsis spent an unidentified, but certainly considerable, amount to become the second-biggest shareholder of Attiki Odos — the ring road hugging Athens.
The stake was sold by local construction firm GEK Terna, in which the Latsis family already owns a 7.6% stake and which earlier this year signed a 25-year concession deal for the state-owned Attiki Odos at a price of €3.27bn ($3.6bn).
GEK Terna did not disclose how much money it obtained from selling the 10% Attiki Odos stake to Latsco.
The Athens-listed construction firm said in a stock exchange filing that the transaction took place at a 15% premium to its own investment in the concession.
About 270,000 vehicles per day use Attiki Odos, the toll road linking Athens airport to the western and southern suburbs.
The Latsco deal is the latest in a string of big shipping investments in the onshore Greek economy.
As TradeWinds already reported, tycoon George Procopiou announced he will spend €500m in Ellinikon — a big real estate project led by a non-shipping part of the Latsis family that has slowly begun to take shape on the Athens Riviera.
Sea Globe and Sea World Management principal Vassilis Laliotis agreed to buy a private school that had recently lined up a 30-year lease agreement in the same area.
In another deal in July, shipping partners Dimitris Bakos and George Kaimenakis wrested control of troubled lender Attica Bank.
In June, ferry and tanker owner Marios Iliopoulos agreed to acquire AEK Athens football club.
In the same month, Evangelos Marinakis and his son, Miltiadis, finalised a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Portuguese club Rio Ave, which became the family’s third football team after Olympiacos Piraeus and Nottingham Forest.
Greek shipowners have been investing part of their maritime wealth in their country for centuries.
The pace of their onshore investment depends on the ups and downs of their shipping fortunes and the nation’s political and economic stability.
Conditions for such investments at home have probably improved considerably, after shipping markets’ recent surge and the end of the national sovereign debt crisis.
Over the past few years, Procopiou has also invested in Hellenic Shipyards — a historic Greek yard better known as Skaramangas, which he has helped revive as a ship repair facility.
In 2021, Marinakis bought a 6% stake in renewable energy firm Terna Energy, which is now worth about €138m on the Athens Stock Exchange.
Marinakis may be able to cash out from his Terna Energy investment at a profit.
Abu Dhabi-based energy firm Masdar announced earlier this year that it will make an all-cash tender offer for Terna Energy, following an initial €880m deal to buy a 36.6% stake from GEK Terna.
