Chipita homecoming and return to ATHEX

By Dimitra Manifava

Food group Chipita is relocating back to Greece from Cyprus, bucking the recent trend of major enterprises leaving this country. The move is based on the improvement in Chipita?s net position and on the decision to relist the company on the Greek bourse, according to the company?s CEO Spyros Theodoropoulos.

Chipita?s return to the local stock market may take place within 2015, but any decision to that end will also depend on local political and economic developments.

The transfer back to Greece is taking place through the merger of Athens-based Chipita SA, which only accounted for the group?s activity in Greece, with Cypriot company UFIB Limited, based in Nicosia. The latter, which controlled the group, will be absorbed by the former, following the approval issued on Wednesday by the Development Ministry.

?Our aim has been to bring the company home back to Greece since retaking it from the Marfin Investment Group in 2010,? Theodoropoulos told Kathimerini. This move is actually taking place ahead of the original schedule and may be linked to upcoming decisions in the company regarding new business cooperations.

Chipita was listed on the Athens market in 1994 and exited upon its merger with dairy industry Delta in 2006.