In brief
A first for Greek shipping on Euronext Athens
Capital Maritime Finance Corp. began trading on the main market of Euronext Athens on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, becoming the first shipping company to list exclusively in Athens without trading on another exchange. The company, linked to the interests of Evangelos Marinakis, raised €300m in its public offering, up from a €250m target after strong investor interest. Rather than using the full pricing range, it set the price of the new shares at €7.50 each, and 40,000,000 new shares were sold, a free float of 28.6%. At the opening, the company was valued at €1.05bn. Greek press described the offering as the most successful in recent years, apart from the DAA offering.
Demand and allocation
Total demand was reported at about €1.09bn, covering the offer 4.34 times the amount originally sought. Other figures differ, with €1.086bn cited in remarks by Nikos Koskoletos and some reports putting demand above €1.1bn. Roughly 14,000 Greek retail investor accounts took part, equal to half of the active domestic investor codes on Euronext Athens. Retail investors received 20,546,668 shares, or 67% of the new shares excluding the cornerstone tranche, while foreign and Greek institutional investors received 10,120,000 shares, or 33% on the same basis.
- Retail investors
- 20546668 shares
- Foreign and Greek institutional investors
- 10120000 shares
- Cornerstone investors
- 9333332 shares
Data from the article text
Cornerstone investors took 9,333,332 new shares for €70m, equal to 23.3% of the public offering. The Vardinogiannis, Mytilinaios, Peristeris and Kokkalis business groups were the cornerstone investors. Retail demand came to 61,598,531 shares, while institutional demand reached 73,808,234 shares, according to the offering figures reported in the coverage.
- Retail investors
- 61598531 shares
- Foreign and Greek institutional investors
- 73808234 shares
Data from the article text
Management comments
Chairman Gerasimos Kalogiratos called the listing a milestone for the company and for Greek capital markets, describing it as the first purely Greek shipping IPO. He credited the result to the company's modern fleet, long-term charters and dividend policy, as well as to a broad investor base willing to back listed shipping companies with sound governance. He put the city's position in the sector bluntly.
“Athens is already a shipping centre, which needs no proof.”
He added that the transaction showed shipping companies can also operate in the capital markets there. Nikos Koskoletos, executive director of Finance and Issuer Relations at Euronext Athens, said the listing carried real strategic weight for the exchange and for a shipping sector with a long tradition, strong international reach and substantial financing needs.
“Today's listing is of particular strategic importance.”
Koskoletos also said Euronext Athens membership in the wider Euronext group connects Greek businesses to a larger European market and a broader investor network.
Debut and what followed
Eirini Marinaki rang the bell that opened the session, in the presence of company executives, Euronext Athens representatives and figures from the Greek capital market. Kalogiratos said the response came from every investor category, including Greek retail investors and both domestic and international institutional portfolios. The debut marks the first time a shipping company has listed in Athens with no parallel trading on another exchange, according to the company's own description.