The stable presence of French investment interest in Greece

Demonstrating as a flagship project the construction and operation of Rio-Antirrio Bridge in Western Greece, French investments regarding infrastructure and transport in Greece are deemed to be really important. If we count how many projects had a French participation in the last 20 years, then we will realize that France is one of the most loyal foreign investors in the country.

On a construction level, Vinci has a stable presence in almost every major project. Vinci, among others, is the constructor and concessionaire of Rio-Antirrio Bridge, one of the greatest technical achievements of all time in modern Greece, connecting Peloponnese with the rest of the mainland in the North.

The French company invested some 500mn euros to build it, delivering it 4 months ahead of schedule. Vinci was also present in major tenders regarding the construction of the new motorways, eventually participating in Olympia Motorway’s construction consortium. The CEO of the company is the the Greek, Mr. Panayiotis Papanikolas, an earnest supporter of French investments.

The French company continues its strong presence to these days with its expression of interest for the new Airport in Kasteli, Crete (which eventually was awarded to TERNA) and participation in 2 major tenders in Attica region, for Athens Metro Line 4 of the Metro and the Salamina underwater road tunnel.

On an infrastructure level, there is also the French multinational company, Alstom, which is equally active as it has participated in all major metro projects in Athens, has delivered the first-generation trains of Lines 2 and 3 and today is participating in the tenders regarding Athens Metro Line 4 of the Metro and the supply of 25 Tram trains, serving the -almost completed- extension of the Tramway to Piraeus area.

Currently, Alstom is part of the joint venture that is constructing the extension of Athens Metro Line 3 to Piraeus while it participates in other 2 major railway projects: Thriassio Plain Logistics Centre construction and Athens-Thessaloniki-Promachonas corridor upgrade works. Managing Director of the company is the also Greek Stavros Vlachos, leading the company’s presence in Greece successfully with his experience.

The French company Suez, which is active in the field of water and sewage management, has also a significant presence in the country. The company holds a 5.5% stake in the publicly owned water company of Thessaloniki (EYATH) and has been a long partner of the Greek, Hellaktor Group. Today, it prepares a strategic partnership with EYDAP (Athens’ public water company) taking on the role of a technical consultant in order to run projects worth up to 1bn euros. Managing Director is Yannick Jaussaud, a Frenchman who lives permanently in Greece and is well acquainted with the Greek mentality.

Recently, we had CMA-CGM’s interest for the Port of Thessaloniki, where it participates in the joint venture for the 67% stake of OLTH S.A. (Thessaloniki’s Port Authority) thus emerging as one of COSCO’s major competitors in containers’ traffic from and to Europe. The most classic French investment group, with almost 20 years of presence in Greece, is Lafarge, active in the cement industry, operating the largest plant in Greece with important presence in all major projects.

Other French companies in the field of infrastructure and transport are: Geodis, Thales, Engie, while we shouldn’t of course forget Total, which is also involved in multiple tenders concerning hydrocarbons surveying and exploitation in various regions of the country.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

Follow Nikos Karagiannis on Twitter