Greece is not only on the radar of major foreign investment funds, which are allocating capital to government bonds, profitable companies and banks. The country is increasingly showing that it could also become a financial hub and a base for the managers and senior teams overseeing those investments. A decade ago, this prospect might have seemed like a “pipe dream,” but it is now beginning to take shape, as demonstrated by rapid developments in the sector over the past week.
Chris Rokos, founder of Rokos Capital Management and one of Europe’s best-known hedge fund managers, with $22 billion in assets under management, announced that he will move his tax residence from Britain to Greece.
Meanwhile, Millennium Management, one of the world’s largest asset managers, with more than $97 billion under management, is planning to open an office in Athens. U.S.-based Veriton Fund Management, which manages $12.6 billion in assets, also appears to be turning its attention in the same direction.
These are examples of globally prominent asset managers that have announced decisions or expressed interest in moving part of their operations or senior staff to Greece.
According to government sources, other high-profile funds are also considering the possibility, opening a major window of opportunity for Greece to develop a financial centre offering a broad range of investment services, supported by legal, tax and other advisory activities and generating highly paid jobs.
As market professionals explain, asset managers tend to generate an ecosystem of services around them, albeit on a smaller scale than the major financial centres of London or Geneva. This includes law firms, tax and investment advisers, banks, custodial services and other specialist managers.
In other words, the development of such an ecosystem could create a significant number of highly paid jobs. The incentives available to funds relocating to Athens also include a requirement that their local operations have annual operating expenses of at least €3 million.
At the office of Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, which is coordinating efforts to attract major foreign asset managers, the developments are being described as yet another vote of confidence in Greece from international markets.
Government officials attribute the trend to the positive benefits generated by Greece’s return to investment-grade status, economic growth of around 2%, and a policy of fiscal stability.
The planned integration of the Athens Stock Exchange into Euronext, together with its upgrade to developed-market status and its expected inclusion in the FTSE Russell and STOXX indices on September 21, has also helped accelerate these developments.
Against this economic backdrop, the new tax framework introduced by the Greek government has opened the door for major foreign asset managers to take the next step.
Under the new framework, eligible asset managers that relocate offices, services and staff to Greece can benefit from a 5% tax rate on bonuses and carried interest, compared with the previous 15%.
It should be noted that relocating staff or establishing an office in Athens does not automatically mean that the fund itself will transfer its tax residence to Greece.
In addition, eligibility for the special tax regime requires annual operating expenses arising from the fund’s facilities and economic activity in Greece to exceed €3 million.
Two international developments have provided Greece with an additional advantage: London’s abolition of the favourable “non-dom” tax regime for wealthy individuals relocating to Britain, and the war in the Middle East, which has cast a cloud of insecurity over Dubai, one of the region’s major financial centres.
The developments are strengthening Greece’s prospects of emerging not merely as an attractive destination for international capital, but as a regional financial centre capable of attracting both investment and the people managing it.
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