On 30 September 2022, the FTE Investor Summit will commence on Mykonos: Follow The Entrepreneur – Investor Summit in Mykonos 2022 (globalftenetwork.com). The Summit will showcase the Greek economy and views of its progress. In this we will debate some of the key questions facing entrepreneurs and investors in the post-Pandemic world.
Specifically, if you can WFH, should you not also be able to choose where “H” is located? We believe that the answer to this question is a resounding “yes” and that the location choice will be governed by the Three Cs: Cost, Currency, Climate.
Driven by this triumvirate, we believe that entrepreneurs will look to Greece. If you can work where you want why would you not?
The stage is set. Greece has been recovering from a deeper Financial Crisis than almost any of its EU neighbours since 2010. Its GDP in 2018 was €179.6 billion, growth of 1.7% on 2017. This placed the Country 24th in the EU growth rankings, consistent with the Bloc’s average. By 2019, Greece grew its GDP by 1.8%, similar to France and at a faster rate than Germany and Italy. As a function of Greece’s reliance on travel and tourism, 2020 GDP fell by 9.0%. However, in 2021, the Greek economy grew by 8.3%, the fourth best performance in the EU and in comparison to an EU average of 5.4%.
Put simply, Greece knows how to recover. The EU Commission forecasts that Greek GDP will rise by over 4.0% in 2022 and to maintain growth at over 3.0% in 2023. It will outperform the EU average in both years. Critically, Greek inflation is expected to moderate at a faster rate than its EU peers, forecast at 3.1% in 2022 and 1.7% in 2023 compared to 3.5% and 1.1% for the EU as a whole.
These forecasts do not take into account the possibility that Greece will attract year-round “economic visitors”. With the freedom of WFH and the growth of portfolio careers, we believe that Greece will be a beneficiary of a more locationally flexible entrepreneurial sector. In effect, we believe that Greece will become an “on demand” economy in which entrepreneurs seek to relocate for some or all of their time.
If true, this should prompt the development, and growth, of a specific Greek real-estate sector. Structured around fractional ownership, it will allow owners “time share” access to a working and living environment which allows the best of all worlds; ownership at lower cost, flexible to a WFH degree, and located in an economy experienced in managing recovery and growth.
VIVA Investment Partners is at the centre of this trend. Currently, we are pursuing a number of investment opportunities in Greece, all focused on the future of real-estate and entrepreneurship in Greece. We will be sharing our plans and prospects with the audience at the FTE ’22 on Mykonos. In addition, the FTE will showcase a range of entrepreneurs, all of whom will demonstrate how they are driven by opportunity and not by historic practices.
When the opportunity to work and live in a low cost, stable currency, pleasant climate is presented, we believe that this opportunity will be grasped.
We believe that these opportunities are all available in Greece.
Scott Fulton is an economics graduate and a capital markets specialist. From 1988 until 2000, he worked within London’s equity capital market as an Extel rated analyst in the Building and Construction sector for, amongst others, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and ABN Amro. From 2000, Scott moved into financial public relations and investor relations (“FPR” and “IR”). He was the director responsible for IR and M&A at Financial Dynamics (now FTI), Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR), Just Retirement plc (now Just Group) and Asda Burson Marsteller (UAE). On returning from the Gulf in 2015, Scott re-joined investment analysis at Whitman Howard (recently sold to Panmure Gordon) before moving into Proxy Solicitation, specialising in M&A, at Equiniti plc. Through his professional career, Scott has focused on and developed skills in investor relations
