GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Stefanos Charaktiniotis, Danai Falconaki, Stathis Orfanoudakis and Nadia Axioti, Zepos & Yannopoulos
1. Trends 1.1 M&A Market
country’s prolonged period of stability and the transformation of its economy, which culminated in Greece’s return to investment grade in 2023, has significantly benefited M&A activity and is expected to continue to do so. 1.2 Key Trends Technology and innovation have been key driv - ers of M&A activity in Greece in recent years. Clear manifestations of this trend are the shift from traditional business models, the increased focus on technology as a component of both M&A work streams and deal-making strategies and, of course, the continuing request for a growing use of GenAI while monitoring its impli - cations for the M&A life cycle. The Greek state continues to enact legislation and incentives to promote innovation and the country’s emerging role as an innovation hub. Corporate transformations and restructurings are also taking place at an increased pace. Greece has recently consolidated its previously fragmented legal framework regarding corporate transformations, which has led to an upturn in M&A opportunities both at a domestic and at a cross-border level, while the new legislation on tax incentives for business combinations is expected to further boost M&A activity in 2025. Market players are utilising these tools as part of their overall M&A strategies, but also as a means of facilitating more efficient deal structures through divestitures, demergers, spin-offs, etc. Moreover, the facilitation of cross-border trans - formations through the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/2121 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards cross-border conver - sions, mergers and divisions played a key role in the attraction of foreign investors while also con - tributing to the rise of Greek businesses’ interest in foreign markets.
During the past 12 months, the Greek M&A mar - ket showed a moderate pick-up in deal pace. Global economic challenges, including persis - tent inflation, high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty, are some of the hurdles that con - tinue to negatively affect M&A deal flow. Despite such global headwinds, Greece saw a modest increase in both the number of transactions and the total value of deals, primarily due to certain megadeals in the technology and energy sec - tors, while many deals that launched in 2023 were completed within 2024. M&A activity in start-ups was also charac - terised by a similarly modest increase during 2024. Newly introduced Law 5162/2024, aiming to enhance the existing tax incentives for angel investors investing in Greek start-ups, while also introducing a new “start-up visa” , is expected to further benefit M&A activity in the Greek start-up ecosystem in the long run. Apart from the fore - going, the Greek state keeps passing legislation and incentives to promote investments not only in start-ups but also in more “traditional” tech - nology companies, as well as R&D and innova - tion in general. In terms of highlight sectors, technology and innovation constitute an ever-growing trend, with the Greek M&A market continuing to take advantage of the ongoing digitalisation of busi - ness models and the rapid development of innovative tools which are expected to keep rising in the years ahead considering the hype around GenAI. On the other hand, new emerg - ing industries, with the education sector being in the spotlight of Greece’s M&A market during the past 12 months, advocate for an optimistic overall market sentiment for the year ahead. The
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