GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Elizabeth Eleftheriades, Theodore Rakitzis, Angeliki Chalikia and Angelos Charalampidis, Kyriakides Georgopoulos Law Firm
In 2025, specific transaction types have gained trac - tion in Greece, particularly in areas aligned with EU funding and regulatory support (ie, the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund). Battery energy storage systems (BESS) and integrated renewable energy projects have attracted strong interest. Technology transac - tions have also increased, especially in sectors such as cybersecurity, enterprise software and digital health solutions. The education sector has also attracted growing investor interest, particularly in private primary, sec - ondary and tertiary institutions. Real estate and hospi - tality continued to be driving forces in the Greek M&A sector, attracting significant PE interest. Greece’s stable fiscal performance and improved credit out - look have also contributed to a favourable investment environment. While geopolitical developments have introduced some risk considerations in sectors such as transport and logistics, these factors have had lim - ited effect on PE deal activity overall. 2. Private Equity Developments 2.1 Impact of Legal Developments on Funds and Transactions In the past two years, several legal developments have had a direct impact on PE transactions and portfolio companies in Greece. Most notably, Law 5162/2024 (as codified by Law 5193/2025) introduced a unified tax incentive framework for corporate transformations, allowing tax-neutral mergers, demergers, spin-offs and share-for-share exchanges. This has improved structuring flexibility and reduced transaction costs, particularly in cross-border deals. The same law also enhanced angel investor incentives, raising annual deductible investment thresholds and establishing a new “Start-Up Visa” regime, which facilitates foreign investment in early-stage companies by granting resi - dency to non-EU investors who contribute capital to Greek-registered start-ups. More recently, Law 5193/2025 introduced further tax relief for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) listings and corporate bonds, and clarified the legal framework for venture capital mutual funds (AKES).
Additionally, Law 5202/2025 established Greece’s first formal foreign direct investment (FDI) screen - ing mechanism, requiring pre-approval for transac - tions in sectors such as energy, defence, telecoms, information and communication technology, digital infrastructure and port infrastructure. While this has introduced an additional regulatory layer, it aligns Greece with broader EU investment screening stand - ards and offers more legal certainty. Collectively, these reforms have modernised the legal environment for PE in Greece, facilitating greater deal volume and improv - ing the investment climate across both growth and buyout strategies. 3. Regulatory Framework 3.1 Primary Regulators and Regulatory Issues In Greece, PE transactions are primarily overseen by the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) under the Greek Competition Act (Law 3959/2011 as codi - fied by Law 5111/2024), which enforces EU-aligned merger control rules triggered by turnover thresholds of EUR150 million globally and EUR15 million domes - tically – though sector-specific thresholds apply to media transactions. In addition, the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC) is the principal regulatory authority over - seeing PE and alternative investment funds (AIFs) in Greece. It is responsible for: • authorisation and supervision of alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) under Law 4209/2013, which transposes the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) into Greek law; • oversight of regulatory compliance, disclosure obligations and investor protection rules for AIFs operating in or marketing to Greek investors; • monitoring cross-border activities under EU pass - porting regimes for both EU-registered AIFMs and third-country managers marketing to Greek inves - tors; and • enforcement against market abuse and breach of fund regulations.
228 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook