The Latsis Group – especially its head, Mr. Sp. Latsis – systematically avoids publicity. They rarely appeared in public, the interviews were fewer, as were the public interventions and positions on the country’s current affairs.
That was the group’s tradition for the past 25 years..
As of last wee, though, the media are inundated by full-page publications and listings of the Latsis Group, with which they are trying to explain their position in the Eurobank case, as well as to present the Latsis family’s attitude towards its investment initiatives and business ventures in Greece.
Everyone can understand the reasons why.
They are aware that the Group has been trying to reposition itself in Greek finances lately. It lost a lot from the restructuring of the banking sector, a 2.5-billion-euro investment and a huge fortune were lost in no time, leaving the Latsis Group outside the credit market, which had offered protections and support all these years.
By exiting the banking market the Group lost power, influence and capabilities – it does not look like the family’s shares in the National Bank can cover the huge loss of Eurobank.
Now the Group is struggling for oil in a problematic market and is claiming the Elliniko project from hidden competitors, hostile local officials and suspicious politicians.
Additionally, it knows that it will need more resources and new allies in the new environment – which seems to be emerging from the many interventions and obvious favoritism of the troika towards foreign investors – in order to overcome the earlier loses.
As such, the recent announcements and publications reveal nothing other than the the competitive attitude, aiming to return to a market that is changing and country that has entangled itself in many ways with Europe and is forced to march down a clearly European path – whatever that might mean for the domestic forces.
They are not the only ones on the defense. As odd as it may sound, the National Bank is also on the defense. Mr. Al. Tourkolias who runs it, is feeling the troika’s pressure, understands that foreign interests want to control half of the Greek economy via the National Bank and is resisting a new capital increase which will undermine the recent Greek investments and work in favor of foreign investors who are lurking by.
Mr. Tourkolias is struggling, he is exhausting the capabilities of covering the capital needs by his owns means and is claiming the necessary time to reveal the benefits of the internal restructuring and operational profitability, as he calls it. He wants to avert by all means the “de-Hellenization” of the National Bank.
He can’t, however, avoid the pressure. Mr. M. Sallas’ Piraeus Bank is at the helm of the banking sector, with neighboring Alpha Bank having the opportunity to free itself from the troika’s embrace – thanks to the guaranteed capital increase it is attempting – and Eurobank will likely try to regain its position in the market, to the extent that the foreign interest and the troika allow it.
If despite Mr. Tourkolias’ efforts the National Bank remains alone, then it will probably face even more pressure, until it gives in an accepts the “de-Hellenization” as a natural consequence.
In any case, a lot is a stake in the banking sector and by extension, the entire business community.
All of the huge groups of the past couple decades are being tried by the many consequences of the financial crisis, from the lower income bases and new consumption models that necessarily dominated.
The old steelmakers, the Angelopoulos, Manesis, Stasinopoulos families, have suffered from the collapse of construction, they companies are barely making it, with their furnaces switched off and the banks demanding the payment of loans from the past.
The cement industry also lost the glamor it once had. The former pioneers of social responsibility are now calling for collective redundancies, the until-recently dominant industrialists are in a dire position today.
The Mytilineos Group is struggling for better electricity prices from DEI for its power-hungry aluminium unit. A lot will depend on the creation or not of a new relationship with DEI. Either way, its request is strong and likely indicative of the need. In one scenario, due to the immense pressure, the SEV “elders” cut Mr. E. Mytilineos’ candidacy from the management of the industrialist union.
In any case, the front in the energy sector is still open. Things are similar in construction, where the former leading business withered away and are threatened by ambitious newcomers. The common belief is that everyone’s position is in question. There are no certainties for anyone in the new era, no matter how powerful they might have previously been.
Things will change dramatically in the energy sector too. More so if the “small DEI” will be claimed by foreign investors, as evident by the intentions of Germans, French and Japanese. If, after the acquisition of OTE by Germans, a new international player enters the electricity market, then the game will change dramatically.
The foreigners are only interested in their money, they demonstrated this during the crisis, when they would transfer their available fund abroad every Friday, fearing we would revert to the drachma at some point!
They care about the profits of each period, they exhaust existing structures and leave the least amount possible here. This situation probably needs to be reviewed and requires new, healthy, Greek funds, which could penetrate certain sectors and reveal advantages that the faceless, international heavyweights do not have, as they usually lack the emotional intelligence.
“New money” is appearing everywhere
The claims of healthy, medium-sized companies that managed to survive the crisis and feel ready to grow are rather interesting. Pharmathen, in the pharmaceuticals industry, Papadopoulos S.A., Jotis and Chipita in the food industry, Sklavenitis in retail, Andreadis in the hospitality sector and so many more are constantly gaining ground.
The so-called “new money” can appear anywhere now, while the old school in shipping, fishing and tourism are threatened.
Of course nobody can predict how things will pan out, but it is clear that the new conditions emerging from the interventions of our partners and lenders, the agreements and with the troika and our commitments, the map of interests is changing entirely.
The reinstatement in the Eurozone, the clear, European path that Brussels enforces on Greece demand that the Greek business environment be restructured.
“Stubborn” safety nets are now going away, privileged relationships will change, business will become riskier and foreign penetration will increase.
A lot will soon happen. A fair bit is already happening. Domestic and international interests are mixing up, fortunes are being lost, but also being made.
That is why the war is escalating and expected to soon become even more relentless. The new era party has already begun…
Antonis Karakousis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
