M&A rise confirms sentiment shift

"Greece's return to the markets, or the recovery of confidence" could have been the title of the survey of company mergers and acquisitions in Greece last year, said Kyriakos Andreou, partner and chief analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers Greece at the start of the annual report's presentation on Tuesday in Athens.

Andreou added that if this course continues for the next two or three years, returns on investments will be no different to those offered by mature markets. "Greece," Andreou said, "is gradually creating its own narrative, resulting in the restoration of market confidence. This is reflected in the yields of the Greek 10-year bond, which have dropped to the lowest level since 2006."

Therefore a record number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were recorded in the local market last year: For the first time in the last decade, deals exceeded 10 billion euros; a...