Going public was the first step. Going global is the next. Athena Vorillas talks to Greek companies that have taken their bid to raise investment capital beyond Greece’s borders.
Dolphin Capital Investors Limited is an example.
“Our company decided to take our maiden fund public last year to raise sophisticated and permanent capital to invest in real estate developments in Greece and the region”, says Miltos Kambourides, managing partner.
A company whose aim is to bring sophisticated residential resort developments into southeastern Europe as it emerges as an alternative holiday and retirement destination to Spain and Portugal, Dolphin is targeting buyers from northern Europe and Russia.
“Being listed provides an added advantage to our investors which is liquidity – something non-existent in private funds”, he adds.
Kambourides says Dolphin Capital Investors chose London’s Alternative Investment Market because of the low barriers to entry, the not-so-strict ongoing regulations (compared to NYSE or NASDAQ), and because of the appetite of the U.K. investors for property-related investments.
Unlike other Greek-based companies, Dolphin, led by a team with a “Western professional background”, considered London their “mother market”.
“London is a very familiar marketplace for us”, says Kambourides. “At IPO we raised 104 m. euro from a select group of blue chip institutional investors only”.