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New technologies, food industry, power energy, shipping and accounting are the sectors which Greece should focus on economic growth. Companies from all these sectors should concentrate on the competitiveness of their products so as to enter international markets. Thus, they will not only expand but will also bring the desired economic growth. A key point to achieve this is the accurate allocation of private equity capital. This is a problem for both entrepreneurs and investors looking for intersection in their interests. Equity capital, its formation and expansion and its involvement to increase the business turnover were part of the topics of the Private Equity Forum 2010 held in Athens and organized by the Greek Financial Academy. Representatives of the business circles - bankers, investors, executives of operating companies and scholars that develop new technologies and are the heart of innovative breakthroughs in the country and abroad – attended the forum.

The nature of private equity capital and the opportunities it provides for the development of successful business ventures were presented by Sakis Georgiadis from Hermes GPE. He explained that the private equity funds enable an already operating company to increase its profits in two main ways - by increasing the turnover and optimizing costs. In many cases it comes to companies that have lost their effectiveness, but if managed correctly they could regain their positions or even grow. Global macroeconomic environment also has its influence upon them. The rate of economic development today is much slower than that known before the last world crisis. Therefore, Sakis Georgiadis said, it is difficult to achieve a significant increase in turnover through equity capital expansion. The only opportunities for the new investors are to make significant operational changes in the activity in which they have invested to restore their production competitiveness thus increasing its demand. Private equity funds know why and how to achieve these results and the period of crisis may be the best time to rearrange the forces to reach the best results in the near future.  

Sakis Georgiadis said that the local Greek companies should take care to increase their available capital and to adapt to the new economic conditions. A company can take advantage of the advice of private equity professionals to outline its new strategies and review its goals. Market liberalization and in particular of closed professions will offer a new field of activity in which business and capital will be able to fully develop their abilities. They will open up new jobs, generate more competitive prices and products of better quality.

Greece is trying to find a way today more than ever to change the local economy to get out of the financial crisis morass. Many experts say there is money in the private sector but investors do not want to risk having in mind the collapse of international economic markets in 2008. At the same time, it becomes clear locally in Greece that the country will not return soon to positive economic growth through only structural changes and economic diet imposed by the government. Innovation and high technology are the sectors the whole world has focused on and got to invent a new sophisticated solutions from various industries. The fruit of their effort should reach the greatest number of users and add the highest possible value. These inventions could be the weight to restore economic stability in the long term.

Kalekos Athanasios, who has thirty experience in venture capital and is president of Conformiq and Sandhill Systems, revealed the difficulties in innovation and scientific development. "The lack of competent people having well developed managerial experience and available capital are the two major problems in the development of innovative technologies," the businessman stated clearly. He explained that there is human resource in the country that can provide new solutions in technology development, but in most cases these people are looking for fulfillment abroad. "Limited funds, on the other hand, lead to limited results in the development of new technologies. Many Greek scholars know that they can not begin a study which requires 10 million euros to bring profits because the available funding is limited to a million," said Kalekos Athanasios. So, they themselves are limited to smaller projects which, of course, have lower returns. He stressed that there is no profit without risk and urged investors generally to pay more attention to new, advanced technologies rather than direct the private capital to recover enterprises of the past.

Suitable example is the story of Kalekos Athanasios who was vice president of Software Support Cadence Design Systems. With his help the company expanded to software-and-services solution provider and increased its revenue from $ 300 million to one billion per year.

Another good example of successful business formula in the real economy are the companies UNISMACK S.A. and KORRES, representatives of which also attended the forum. The history of KORRES began in 1996 when its founder and president George Korres created a brand of natural beauty products based on unique herbs in Greece. Following extensive research and scientific formulas, today KORRES is a brand that offers high quality cosmetics and exports its products in 30 countries worldwide. Its products in Greece are available exclusively in pharmacies and official stores of the company and its official partner for the USA is the global giant Johnson & Johnson. "Greece is obliged not to export oil but to create and export brand names," said the founder of the KORRES brand.