The Legal 500: Mergers & Acquisitions Country Comparative Guide – Greek chapter
Rokas would like to share the latest 5th edition of The Legal 500: Mergers & Acquisitions Country Comparative Guide. Τhe guide provides the readers with a pragmatic overview of Merger & Acquisitions laws and regulations in Greece. Each chapter includes information about market sectors, regulatory authorities, due diligence, deal protection, public disclosure, governing law, director duties and anticipated key influencing factors on the M&A activity over the next two years in Greece.
Rokas contributed the Greek chapter of the guide as an exclusive contributor. Authored by Associates Sofia Getimi and Kosmas Karanikolas.
- What are the key rules/laws relevant toM&A and who are the key regulatoryauthorities?
I. Mergers. Law 4601/2019 “On CorporateTransformations” (Government Gazette A’ 44/09.03.2019, hereinafter the “Law”), as amended, has consolidated the Greek legal framework on mergers,
demergers as well as alterations of the company type.
The consolidation of the previously fragmented applicable laws into a single piece of legislation aims to combat the ambiguities and gaps which existed and establish a homogenous legal framework which is compatible with EU law and promotes legal certainty. The Law resolves the earlier problem of irregular mergers, i.e., amalgamations between different kinds of
legal entities, which entailed a level of legal uncertainty, and introduces significant flexibility in the conversion, merger and splitting or de-merger processes. It drastically expands the range of permissible corporate transformations as it allows the corporate transformation of all types of entities, irrespective of their legal form, while it also allows different types of entities to merge or
otherwise transform and aims to facilitate such transformations by providing for universal succession by operation of law and continuance of the legal personality of the transforming entities. The Law also allows for a company under liquidation to benefit from its provisions, as long as it has not yet begun to distribute its assets to its shareholders, and the minimum capital requirement
is fulfilled. The Law aimed to modernize, improve and simplify the legal regime by removing long-lasting restrictions and by establishing some general common provisions for all company types, and has succeeded in doing so during the first years of its application; several corporate transformations have taken place.
You can read more and access the chapter here: 