About

Listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, Marfin Investment Group Holdings maintains a highly respected and effective legal department consisting of seven individuals, with a further 30 attached to subsidiary companies. Dr Fotios Karatzenis is chief legal counsel and head of group legal and has led the team since 2002, displaying an astonishing breadth of expertise while in the top position; as well as managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced working environment while meeting regulatory and business challenges, he has personally been key to the success of a number of important and often innovative transactions for the Greek market. Karatzenis mentions Vassiliki Zakinthinou and Anastassia Paraskevopoulou as particularly important team members for their expertise on loan facilities, M&A projects and capital markets work. ‘With hard work there is always a way’, says Karatzenis when discussing the team’s outlook. ‘We have understood this, as we are often asked to do things without precedent or against precedent – and usually achieve success’. Karatzenis believes that his people are a great asset and helps them personally to grow to their full potential by becoming trusted members of the team. He is particularly proud of the team’s M&A record: ‘The in-house legal team has handled no less than 100 completed M&A transactions and corporate actions in the last fifteen years, including mergers, acquisitions, privatisation procedures, public tender offers, de-listings, management buyouts, spinoffs, share and bond issues in diverse business sectors [such as] banking, financing, healthcare, aviation, coastal navigation and other areas both in Greece and in several other jurisdictions, namely, Cyprus, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Estonia, Turkey, Australia and others’.