Lamda Development

The Greek stock market benchmark edged marginally higher again on Thursday, but the increase in turnover did not translate into a significant advance for blue chips, as their index ended up in the red. Gains for small-caps, on the other hand, led to winners surpassing the losers at the end of the session.

Aegean Air is becoming a strategic partner in the Elliniko development with a 20-million-euro investment in Lamda Development's share capital and an agreement to promote the project at the site of Athens' former international airport.

In a ruling made public on Friday, Greece's Council of State effectively lifted the final barrier to a major investment at the site of the capital's old airport at Elliniko.

The decision of the country's highest administrative court deemed as legal the procedures that have been followed to date as regards feasibility studies and environmental issues. 

The Delphi Economic Forum is organizing a foreign direct investment round table at the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens on Friday which is expected to draw the attention of the business world. Several ministers will take part and the main topic will be how Greece can become a focus for investment.

Greek real estate company Lamda Development announced on Wednesday that its board of directors will call an extraordinary general meeting to agree on a share capital increase of up to 650 million euros.
In its announcement, Lamda Development also said the company held talks with its partners of Global Investment Group over the last few months but did not reach an agreement.

Greece's bourse index came down from a six-week high to record moderate losses on Tuesday, but listed companies are mainly focused on the two-day London roadshow they are launching on Wednesday, with the participation of Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Thursday. That may also explain the fresh slump in turnover on Tuesday.

Chinese company Fosun has agreed to acquire 75 percent of UK group Thomas Cook's tour operations and 25 percent of its airline business for 450 million pounds (497 million euros) while the group's creditors - banks and bondholders - will put up a similar amount to buy 25 percent of the tour business and 75 percent of the airline business.

Greece has among the smallest densities of shopping malls in Europe, with 57 square meters per 1,000 inhabitants, just 6.7 percent that of first-place Norway (857 sq.m.) and less than fellow Balkan countries Bosnia-Herzegovina (98 sq.m.) and Serbia (88 sq.m.).

Banks led the way on Monday at Athinon Avenue, where trade was notably slower due to it being the start of the traditional summer holiday season, while the election frenzy that started on May 27 appears to have subsided. The benchmark edged nearer the 900-point landmark, but the majority of stocks ended up on the losing side.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed to take all the necessary steps to lift the obstacles to the stalled multi-million-euro development of the former Athens airport plot at Elliniko on the Greek capital's southern coast.