Capital Group returns after leftists’ defeat
A bourse filing by Eurobank late on Wednesday may well mark the end of a five-year period during which foreign investors’ attitude toward Greece was one of uncertainty and major foreign institutional portfolios abstained from Greek transactions. Capital Group, which rocked the stock market in late 2014 when it said it was selling Greece ahead of the change in government, is now back with a significant holding in the country’s third-largest lender.
The company manages $1.87 trillion, which consists of funds owned by institutional and private investors and corporations that it invests in stocks, bonds and mutual funds in international markets.
According to information Eurobank received from Capital, the latter’s voting rights now come to 5.13 percent, above the 5 percent level which renders the publication of the fund’s holdings obligatory.
Five years ago, after meeting with SYRIZA financial experts including Giorgos Stathakis and Yiannis Milios, a senior Capital official said SYRIZA’s program was “worse than communism” and that meeting participants wanted to sell everything they had in Greece.
The government changed in January 2015 and Capital sold virtually all of its holdings in Greece, but after the July 2019 election, it seems to be on its way back.
