With a capital increase and equity stakes placed by interested investors, the shipping company Attica Group intends not only to remain on the Greek stock market, but also to attract many more Greek private small investors.

The capital increase, sources in the banks explain, will be carried out in order to raise funds that will be used to cover part of the equity participation in the investment and shipbuilding program of a shipping company with a total budget of 1 billion. A group to build new ships with minimal environmental impact and modernize existing ones fleet.

This is the plan of STRIX Holdings, MIG’s main creditor today and future major shareholder of Attica Group, after completing the exchange of 443 million of STRIX receivables from MIG for MIG’s Attica shares, corresponding to 79.38% of the shipping company’s share capital. Thus, STRIX, a subsidiary of Piraeus, will become the owner of more than 90% of the shares of Attica (it already owns 12%).

The plans are to ensure the Greekness and development of the company.

This agreement was approved by the general meeting of MIG, but it will not be implemented until the relevant approvals are received from the Competition Commission, following the relevant instructions of Piraeus Bank, which exhaust all meticulousness, so that the process is immune from all possible appeals. Like those run by Attica Group’s archrival, the Marios Iliopoulos group that controls Seajets.

Prior to the Attica capital increase, which will give the general investment public the opportunity to participate in the success story of the cruise group and Greek tourism, all Attica shareholders will be offered a mandatory public offering of STRIX.

A merger with ANEK will also be completed, which will see Attica grow, according to independent consultancy Shippax, into a giant that will be No. 2 in the world in payload capacity, No. 5 in garage kilometers and No. 5 in total. fleet capacity. The agreement between STRIX and MIG already values ​​Attica, even before the merger with ANEK, at more than one billion in enterprise value (EV).

In order to bring this fleet to zero carbon emissions from 2050, its Greek administration intends to invest in volumes never seen before in Greek shipping in recent decades. As Attica Group Executive Chairman Kyriakos Mageiras, speaking exclusively with Kathimerini, explained, capital-intensive industries such as shipping require serious capital. “Such capital can be found through a combination of equity, capital raising, loans and grants, and in the case of Attica, MIG exiting equity and replacing it with a new zero-leverage scheme such as STRIX Holdings, combined with Greek and by foreign banks, but the financing provided by the Recovery Fund and other resources obtained from the subsidies provided by the plans of the Ministry of Shipping, as well as instruments such as the issuance of green bonds, constitute an ideal scheme for financing the plans for the next day of Greek shipping.”