Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ shipping company has been hailed as “one of the most important in the world”.
And the Greek businessman has spoken about managing “very severe crises”, as well as focusing on green investment amid the company being in a healthy financial position.
A show of trust in Marinakis’ shipping company, CPLP Shipping Holdings PLC, led to record success when a 150million euros bond was issued, raising a significant amount of money.
The bond was oversubscribed by more than five times, with listed offers exceeding 800m euros for five-year unsecured bonds by the company.
As the bonds were officially listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX), there was praise for the company, as well as an indication from Marinakis of the challenges CPLP have recently faced.
“We successfully weathered very severe crises, always with respect towards our investors; we enjoy a very good reputation as we coped under very difficult conditions, succeeding not only to manage crises, but to also emerge victorious,” Marinakis said, as quoted by Greek website OT.
“We have, in fact, grown through these crises!”
Marinakis, who also owns Greek giants Olympiacos and is founder and president of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, added: “Green investments are the future… we saw the wildfires over the summer; climate conditions have changed, and the task of environmental protection is not only the responsibility of governments.
“We must all contribute; we need to invest in green energy because it is the future, the future of our children.”
The company are planning to use the 150m euros raised from the bonds being issued to “partly finance a ‘green’ strategic business plan totaling 1.2b euros”.
CEO of the Athens Exchange Socrates Lazaridis said: "It's an honour to list the CPLP bond on the ATHEX.
"It is a great pleasure to feature one of the most important shipping companies in the world on the Athens Stock Exchange."
Since buying Forest in 2017, Marinakis, who also owns Greek giants Olympiacos, has invested a lot of money into the club - including more than £2m spent directly related to the City Ground redevelopment plans.
The Reds’ most recent set of accounts, released earlier this year, included a statement saying, Marinakis remains “committed to the long-term future of the club and its funding”.
