Amber Capital’s Joseph Oughourlian is Crazy About Greece

It seems that there is more in Greece than just beautiful islands and beaches. For some investors, this country represents business heaven, as well. Namely, in a recent interview in London, Amber Capital’s Joseph Oughourlian revealed that he is crazy about Greece and that he would like to invest more, but there are not enough stocks for him to buy. He already purchased construction conglomerate Ellaktor, the Athens Stock Exchange, and telecom Company OTE, but since he is staying away from banks he can’t track more interesting stocks for investing in Greece, which he finds a very attractive country for business at the moment.

 “I’m super optimistic about the Greek economy. It’s got all the catalysts in reverse versus a lot of the countries — not just in Europe, in the rest of the world. It’s got populism receding, it has the economy in a very, very strong footing, it’s got incredibly strong fundamentals.”

Joseph Oughourlian launched his own event-driven hedge fund Amber Capital Investment Management. At first, the fund operated as a part of SG Corporate & Investment Banking, a subsidiary of Societe Generale Group, and then in 2005, it was formed as an independent entity. The fund is headquartered in London, England, but provides additional offices in NYC, New York, and Milan, Italy. It mainly invests in value stocks, takeovers, spin-offs, and mergers, with two-thirds of its investments being in Europe and the rest in the US. In September 2017, Amber Capital managed around $1.7 billion in assets.

Interestingly, in 2018, Joseph Oughourlian had high hopes for Italy, in which stocks have since fallen mostly because of the country’s growing debt burden. Now, he has shifted his focus towards the southeast, thinking that Greece is in the process of high-speed recovery after the long period of recession. Year-to-date Greece’s stock benchmark is up 17%.