Small firms refuse to grow larger

Not a single investment project in the context of business mergers and acquisitions has been submitted to the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) to date for financing, despite the fact that Greece is a champion in absorbing the resources of the RRF’s loan arm.

This picture runs counter to the dire need for larger business models that will improve the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises, which falls significantly short of the European average.

This was pointed out by the speakers who participated in an event organized by AON on the trends in the field of acquisitions and mergers in 2023, underlining the absence of a culture of partnerships in Greek entrepreneurship but also the need to create a stronger framework of incentives that will strengthen the policy of mergers and acquisitions to grow small businesses.

“The need for more acquisitions and mergers is inherent in the structure of the Greek economy,” underlined Tasos Iosifidis, partner at EY and head of the Strategy and Transactions Department, noting that “small businesses in our country represent 96% of the total, employ 55.8% of the workers and deliver 40% of the productivity of the European average.”