AMCHAM Makes Investor Pitch In N.Y.

Some 28 Greek companies will be attending an investment forum in New York sponsored by the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) an event aimed at showing Wall Street that Greece is slowly beginning to recover and as its banks are being recapitalized.

The June 5-6 conference will be held at the Plaza hotel and AMCHAM President Giannos Grammatidis said the body is hopeful it will be able to persuade investors that Greece is a good bet and that promises made at previous events have been met.

Among the 28 companies that will join the road show, 11 are first-time participants. Some 267 meetings are to be held with institutional investors, while 46% of the funds that will speak with Greek companies are also participating for the first time. Some of the investors aim at long-term profits, while others at short-term.

The conference organizers will insist on evidence that the Greek economy is recovering as the primary deficit declined by 80%, to 306 million euros in the first quarter of 2013.

The spread of Greek bonds decreased to 670 units from nearly 3,000 units in May 2012. Greece is a developed reliable market and ranks in the Top 10 among the countries that experienced the greatest improvement according to a World Bank report.

Nevertheless, Greece remains inexpensive given that stock market capitalization is approximately one quarter of the EU average, as stressed by the Chairman of the Athens Exchange and Chief Executive Officer of the companies of the Hellenic Exchanges Group, Socrates Lazaridis.

The Greek stock market has liquidity as well. Foreigners take positions and even their participation in the market is historically high. Most of the international placements are mainly from the  USA, Luxembourg, Cyprus and the United Kingdom.

The Greek stock exchange in New York, also intends to highlight its new institutional framework over collective investments which can help in financing smaller and unlisted companies.