Athens airport stock rises in debut on Greek stock exchange

Shares of Athens International Airport SA jumped 15% at the start of trading on the Athens Stock Exchange, in the country’s biggest initial public offering in more than two decades. The stock opened at €9.40 a share, compared with the IPO price of €8.20, the high end of the initial range, and later pared gains slightly to trade up 12% at 4:20 p.m. in Athens. The move came as the benchmark ASE Index slipped 0.9% after touching its highest intraday level since May 2011. “Greece becoming investment grade last year was a big push; investors are keen to deploy more into the region,” Marco Guarino, executive director at Morgan Stanley’s equity syndicate desk for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said in an interview. “We will see more activity coming from Greece this year, particularly from privatizations.” The bank was joint global coordinator on the offering along with BofA Securities. The Greek state raised E785m last week through the sale of its 30% stake in the 23-year-old airport, known as Eleftherios Venizelos. Investor demand exceeded the amount on offer within hours of books opening. The IPO is just one of the latest signs that Greece’s economy, which outperformed most of its European peers last year, has made a comeback in the market more than 10 years after its financial crisis. <br/>