The 2nd Growth Fund Summit highlighted the potential of the country's new National Investment Fund, which aims to attract private capital, develop into a growth driver, and establish Greece as an investment destination.

THE ROADMAP

The Deputy CEO and Executive Board Member of Growthfund, Stefanos Yourelis, presented the roadmap, indicating the start of full operation in the second half of 2025. He said the creation of the new Investment Fund as an independent subsidiary of the Super Fund was a strategic objective in order to evolve into the country's sovereign wealth fund.

"Its aim is not only to leverage the existing €300 million of funds but also to attract foreign investment and create significant economic value for the country and, in the long term, for its citizens," he said. BlackRock is collaborating with us in the final stages of planning to ensure the adoption of best practices.

"We have begun discussions and consultations with private funds in the country, both to inform what we are doing and to explore possible partnerships or synergies," Yourelis noted, emphasising projects that will ensure long-term and sustainable returns, focusing on green growth, technology and high-quality infrastructure. He finally stressed that the fund will have minority stakes, clarifying that it will not provide subsidies.

INNOVATIVE INVESTMENTS

Michael Argyrou, Chairman of the Council of Economic Experts of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, spoke on the usefulness of a National Investment Fund. The fund focuses on innovative investments, which require high-risk sharing to mobilize individuals through the financial markets and other vehicles like venture capital.

"The New Investment Fund can finance very innovative investments while also sending strong signals about what is a priority for an investment effort, such as in the areas of green investments, innovation, transport, supply chain, etc.," he stressed.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

"We are Greece's sovereign fund of funds," noted Charis Lambropoulos, president of the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments, explaining that ΗDB's portfolio includes 32 new schemes, plus those operated by Equifund 1, with €1.8 billion under management.

"Of the €2.1 billion we manage on behalf of the Greek government, we have committed €805 million to these 32 schemes and have raised another €1 billion of private capital. We are the ultimate example of a public-private partnership in venture capital funds, as we have now established ourselves as the trusted institutional co-investor in this sector," he said. He expressed confidence that HDB will complete contracts for four more funds by the end of 2024, with commitments exceeding €1 billion and an additional €1.2 billion of private capital, bringing the total under management to €2.2 billion.

CATEGORIES OF STATE INVESTMENT 

Alexandra Konida, Managing Director, Head of Multinationals & Regional ESG Lead for Global Banking at HSBC Continental Europe, referred to the international experience of similar investment funds, classifying them into three categories:

• Those that support with financing, on more favourable terms than the market, investments and projects of strategic importance that cannot be financed on purely commercial terms, focusing on public goods and services with a social footprint
• those that act on the basis of economic return and take on additional risk in order to create the conditions for attracting private capital from the domestic system and from abroad, such as the Irish strategic fund with €18.5 billion in assets, which recently announced two new funds to invest in the climate change and infrastructure sectors, with an initial capital of €2 billion, and new technologies, with an initial capital of €8.5 billion
• those that operate on a purely commercial basis and aim to maximise returns. Such as the Middle East and Norway