Speaking at the event titled “Navigating Success: Capital Market Opportunities for Shipping Companies”, organized by Piraeus Bank, Euronext Athens and Fearnleys Securities, Mr. Barbaris expressed his conviction that Athens now has the conditions to evolve into a significant European shipping capital markets center, leveraging the fact that it is already the largest shipping center in Europe.
It is noted that Safe Bulkers became the first shipping company to carry out a dual listing on Euronext Athens, while maintaining its primary listing in New York.
Mr. Barbaris presented the rationale behind the decision, linking it to the company’s long-term strengthening strategy, which has a fleet of approximately 45 vessels and is implementing a renewal program with 23 newbuilds.
As he emphasized, this move paves the way for approaching European investors and enhancing the liquidity of the stock.
The data presented by Euronext regarding its footprint in the European shipping industry also gains particular weight.
According to the exchange group, its markets currently host 39 listed shipping companies, with a total market capitalization of 38.7 billion euros, while listed shipping bonds, mainly through the Oslo market, amount to 4.7 billion euros.
This picture explains why Mathieu Caron, Head of Primary Markets at Euronext, presented the inclusion of Athens in the group as an opportunity to create a new European stock exchange hub for shipping.
As he emphasized, Euronext now connects eight stock exchanges, more than 1,900 listed companies and a total capitalization of over 7 trillion euros, offering access to the largest liquidity pool in Europe.
For shipping, this advantage is not theoretical. Euronext describes itself as the No. 1 European stock exchange center for listing shipping companies, possessing a specialized ecosystem of investors, advisors and analysts, as well as the shipping index OBSHX – Oslo Shipping Index.
At the same time, according to the data presented, the group’s shipping issuers attract 656 institutional investors from 29 countries, with 46% coming from the USA, 36% from Norway, 8% from the United Kingdom and the remaining 10% from other markets.
For his part, the CEO of Piraeus Bank, Christos Megalou, highlighted the significance of the current conjuncture for Greek shipping, noting that the connection of the world’s largest shipping power with Europe’s largest stock exchange network creates new possibilities for raising capital.
As he noted, the Greek market no longer functions as a regional stock exchange, but as a mature, internationally recognized and investable market.
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