David Sassoon: An economically strong and stable Greece is an asset for SE Europe

An investor and entrepreneur who takes pride in sharing his convictions, David Sassoon, Chairman of the Joseph Sassoon Group, shows his cards in a long interview with Fortune Greece. He analyzes the group’s strategy, identifies the significant opportunities presented by the Greek market in sectors such as technology, tourism and energy, and highlights the “bridges” between Greece and Israel, and the lessons we can adopt from the Israeli “success story” in entrepreneurship.

Partly of Greek origin, he says that Greece is driven by its soul and its heart, which is why it is the “best country in Europe”, expresses his interest in investment and cooperation with entrepreneurs and the state, and puts forward the necessary changes and reforms that need to be made, in light of the recent election results, in order for our country to attract even more capital.

Joseph Sassoon Group is an investment management, advisory and merchant banking firm. We provide financial architectural and engineering solutions to complex financial models and businesses to optimize growth and increase revenue. We focus on technology, including bio and medical tech, renewable energy, hospitality, media, mining, financial services, aerospace and defense.

What is the reason that your group has chosen Greece as a location for its business activities?

We are not new to Greece; our family has first started trading with and in Greece since 1512. My grandmother and father were both born in Greece. However, these are not the only or primary reasons why we are closing the circle and following in the footsteps of our predecessors by returning to Greece. We see some amazing opportunities in Greece because the Greek market has great potential and is hungry for so many products and services. Although Greece has two dominating industries, shipping and tourism, there is so much the country needs and can benefit from. We view Greece as an undervalued and largely ignored market by many western investors. This also highlights our philosophy: we don’t follow market trends – we are market leaders and opportunity creators.

What are Joseph Sassoon Group’s business plans and aspirations for the Greek market?

Greece requires three primary things: an innovative ecosystem; training/education not only for universities and high school students, but also for business executives; and commerce reform by the government where it is easier for foreign companies to establish a presence, not only for the conglomerates of the world but also for SMEs and startups. This must also include tax incentives for foreign investors to bring their capital to the market. At Joseph Sassoon Group we seek to collaborate and cooperate with industry leaders, SMEs, entrepreneurs and startups as well as the government, whether in an advisory capacity, strategic partner or co-sponsor of projects and innovation centers. Our aspirations are to play a vital role in Greece’s new chapter of becoming a regional economic powerhouse. An economically strong and stable Greece is a strong and stable Eastern and Southern Mediterranean region, which can only be an asset for the rest of Europe.

What do you think are Greece’s advantages in a time of multi-crisis?

Greece has a very important and significant role to play in a time of crisis. This was evident following the unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic; Greece’s recovery and resilience plan responded to the urgent need of fostering a strong recovery and making Greece ready for the future. The reforms and investments in the plan, which is still ongoing, is helping Greece becoming more sustainable, resilient, and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. To this end, the plan consists of 106 investment measures and 68 reforms. It is supported by €17.77 billion in grants and €12.73 billion in loans. 37.5% of the plan supports climate objectives and 23.3% of the plan fosters the digital transition. This is a strong testament of the government’s commitment under the leadership of Prime Minister Mitsotakis. But this is not the time to rest, it is the time to keep on growing and forging forward; the world deserves and expects to see a strong Greece, and Greece deserves to have her place among the economic leaderships of the global market.

Correspondingly, what are the features that Greece should fix?

Despite the success the country has had, Greece can’t afford to be complacent. In my opinion, in order to achieve investment grade status, Greece has to carry out a major tax reform that would help the local market, especially among SMEs, startups and reducing income and capital gain tax for consumers to generate more residual income. The government will need to make the establishment of a business whether you are a Greek or a foreigner easier, faster and cost effective. This can be achieved by using existing tech solutions; today you can incorporate a company in the UK or the US from the comfort of your home in Athens or Kefalonia without having to hire a lawyer or obtaining a personal tax ID for yourself or having to travel to either country yourself. And it won’t cost you more than $400 to boot. Greece needs to make the process of investing or moving capital to Greece by foreign investors as seamless and as fast as possible. The financial market needs support from regulators, continued education and training for both regulators and the industry professionals, exploring products that already exist within the EU and other major markets like the U.S. allowing Greek investors the opportunity to diverse their portfolio and take advantage of opportunities in other markets as well. Such an approach can also be extremely helpful to Greek companies seeking to raise capital. Access to liquidity and cheap capital is vital for any business. Hence, access to the non-Greek capital market is crucial, as it enables Greek banks to spread their risk and learn of new products and services they might wish to adopt, and brings much needed smart capital into the country, plus it offers opportunities for Greek companies to expand beyond their local markets.

Israel is a prime example. Thanks to the creative outside-of-the-box thinking by both entrepreneurs and the government in a partnership, today Israeli startups pick and choose whom they want as their investors. I spoke to so many VCs from the U.S., UK and Canada where they were shocked when they were turned down by startups and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs did not feel they had to be beholden to an investor or compromise their business model in order to attract investors. This created so much available liquidity in the market that forced Israeli VCs to look outside of Israel to park their capital. As a result, according to recent reports by the World Bank, Israel, which is smaller in size with almost the same population size as Greece is ranked the 34th freest economy in the 2023 Index and 2nd of 14 countries in the Middle East / North Africa region and its overall score is above the world and regional averages. In contrast, Greece is ranked 107th and its score is 4.6 points lower than last year. Greece is ranked 42nd out of 44 countries in the Europe region, and its overall score is below the world and regional averages. Don’t get me wrong, Greece has done some amazing things and achieved incredible results even with the pandemic, this came at the heels of the economic crisis as the country had just started its recovery. But there is still much work ahead that needs to be done.

You have emphasized that you are a family business that operates consistently on the principle of positive-sum game, where all partners, customers and stakeholders benefit and succeed. What is your strategy for expansion in the wider SE Mediterranean region?

SE Mediterranean and the MEASA regions have been largely ignored by most Western investors. Let’s look at the MEASA market for example: The 88 countries comprising the MEASA Region (Middle East, Africa, Southern Asia) comprises only 3.5% of the value of the global equity benchmark—the MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index), which is why most Western investors reason that the margins for return on an investment in MEASA is insignificant and would rather focus on larger ROI potentials in Western Markets.

But they are missing some very important fundamentals, and I say their analysis is incomplete. The MSCI ACWI has roughly $16 trillion of institutional investment money that is benchmarked against it either actively or passively. Therefore, ignoring these markets actually misses the point and the opportunities the MEASA Region offers. When considering the total market cap value of all publicly stocks globally, those in the MEASA comprise 6% of the global total. The economies of the 88 countries in the MEASA Region comprise 15% of the world’s GDP and around 1/3 of the world growth in GDP. MEASA countries represent 52% of the global population which will account for 60% by the year 2050. And the MEASA Region is the only region experiencing population growth—the rest of the world is not growing. Similarly, Mediterranean economies are open economies, with exports of goods and services accounting for 30-40% of GDP for most. So, our strategy is focused on building an ecosystem that brings capital, innovation and trade together, showcasing the opportunities in those regions where operating cost and cost of capital is relatively cheaper, which makes it more attractive to investors and companies seeking to explore new markets. At the same time, Joseph Sassoon Group will work with local partners to support the local startups, entrepreneurs and SMEs through workshops, webinars, forums and conferences to help bridge the gap between the capital markets and those regions who are filled with unprecedented opportunities.

How do you view relations between Greece and Israel on an economic level?

I would say we are making some amazing progress: we see Israeli investments in Greece is on the rise, Israeli tourists frequent Greece all year around, and the added value by Israeli firms is extremely important for Greek companies and the economy. Israeli companies are investing both money and technical skills and expertise in energy, tourism and real estate, supply chain, technology, business services (SSC’s-BPO’s), agri-food, pharmaceuticals and health services, as well as in the Greek privatizations sector. Since Israel and Greece have formed a trilateral cooperation scheme that includes Cyprus, there are great opportunities for cooperation in many sectors of mutual interest. Greece stands as the dominant country in the maritime sector and tourism; hence, Greece can share this experience with Israel and help create new values for Israel’s tourism sector.

While the Energy sector is a great opportunity for Israeli investments in Greece, since the Israeli Ministry of Energy has issued licenses for small scale, gas-based generation sites for industrial plants, which can bring opportunities for Greek manufacturers of relevant gas turbines and engines. The Israeli government had also issued in 2019 a request for information for onshore natural gas reservoirs and storage technologies, which has the potential to develop into a procurement opportunity for Greek suppliers for relevant equipment, technology and services. The significant increase in renewable energy capacity which the Government of Israel is promoting to reach its 2030 goals presents substantial opportunities for firms outside of Israel, including suppliers of photovoltaic power, wind, storage technology and equipment, transmission equipment, for the construction of additional substations, switching stations, etc., to support new transmission infrastructure from remote generation sites; and independent power producers to build and operate renewable energy generation plants. All of these are opportunities that Greece can benefit from, whether from procurement, co-investment or obtaining advanced Israeli technology that can help Greece reaching its technology objectives.

But our relationship remains strong geopolitically as well.

On the geopolitical side, I am afraid the work required in that area is much larger than on the economic side. The Israel-Greek relationship was not fully developed until 1992; thanks to Mr. Mitsotakis, today both countries have developed stronger ties in many areas including security. We saw the results of this strong cooperation recently when Greek police in cooperation with their Israeli counterparts were able to disrupt a terror plot in Athens that targeted the Jewish community among other non-Jewish targets, orchestrated by Iran. We also saw how the cooperation between the two countries provides added security for Greece against any potential foreign aggression through the newly built $1.65 billion flight training center by Israel in Kalamata. Highly experienced Israeli combat fighter pilots are training their Greek counterparts, where the Greek pilots will attain invaluable experiences and skills from the combat tested Israeli pilots. The modern training aircraft provided by Israel will play a vital role in the training of Greek pilots to the requirements of modern fighter jets. Greek pilots will collaborate with the Israeli instructors and fine tune their skills to become combat ready.

What can we learn from the successful Israeli model of business development?

Israel became the Startup Nation and a technology giant out of necessity. The environment Israelis found themselves in, where relationships were hampered by anti-Semitic organizations like BDS, and others falsely accusing Israel of all sorts of atrocities, while giving a free pass to terrorists, Israelis had to become innovative in order to survive. Survival has been the hallmark of our people for over 2000 years. So, the lesson learned from the Israeli model is, as the late President Kennedy said: “don’t ask what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country”. Think outside the box, be creative, be inventive and understand that failure is part of the process to success; don’t be afraid of failure, but more so don’t be afraid of success. I recently heard a quote from someone I consider as a national hero of the Jewish people and a great man, Jonathan Pollard, this quote is part of an important lessons taught in Judaism that helped our people survive, prosper and grow against all odds over the last 2,000 years. “We don’t lose faith in God, We don’t lose faith in our fellow Jews, and We don’t lose faith in our obligations towards the Land and the People of Israel”.

What is your comment on the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Greece?

Greece has been blessed with a highly intelligent population. Some of the great innovators of our time are Greeks, like Mike Lazaridis, Christos Charilaos Papadimitriou, Helen Fessas-Emmanouil, and Alexander Issigonis are just a few of the many innovators Greece has produced who had a global impact on our lives. Entrepreneurship is part of the Greek DNA, which makes this country a great place to live, innovate and grow. The potential is amazing, it only requires some TLC (Tender, Love and Care) to blossom and then there is no stopping it.

As a foreign investor in Greece, what are your thoughts about the recent elections, the new government and whether it will change things for the better or worse for foreign companies like yours.

First, and foremost I don’t consider myself as a foreigner. My grandmother and my dad were both born in Greece. Joseph Sassoon Group is just as much of the Greek story as it is of the American and Israeli stories in our family. Greece and Greeks have opened their hearts and homes to Jews from around the world including my family at time of need. In our case, not once, but three times and I would have no honor if I forgot this. I am as much Greek as I am a Jew or American.

Secondly, Greece is the birthplace of Western Democracy, and it is a country that is lead by its soul, its heart, which is why this is the best country in Europe as far as I am concerned. I think if pushed I could challenge anyone that would dispute that simple fact. Greece still has purity of the heart, and this is the wise side of its national consciousness. This election has shown that the people of Greece are as wise as they are kind and love their country as much as they love their own families. Patriotism remains an important part of Greek culture, this is what this election has shown me.

As for whether it will change things, yes there will be changes but I believe for the better not for the worse. I believe that everyone in the country, including foreign businesses, must all support the new government, its leadership, each other and ask what we can do as citizens and businesses to help Greece. We know that the road to success is often difficult, filled with challenges, but we can’t give up or surrender. Prime Minister Mitsotakis is the right leader at the right time in history, an intelligent and strong leader who works for his people. How many leaders around the world can we say that about? Sadly, not too many. Which is why I emphasize a stable and economically strong Greece is a stable and economically strong Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, and with Israel, an alliance that has the potential of bringing greater stability and prosperity to the global economy we would be looking at an indestructible partnership and a regional industrial revolution. A Force for Good. As a company we think locally and work globally. This is driven by our own family’s philosophy: Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge, which represent the intellectual underpinnings of our enterprise.