70 Greek-owned British businesses at risk of bankruptcy, combined $727M in turnover

'These 70 British businesses could at best have financial repercussions or at worst go bust at any moment'. Image: Concentration of Greek-owned companies by country

Seventy British companies are Greek-owned and at risk due to the financial crisis, according to an in-depth analysis of thousands of supplier relations.

The analysis of 160,628 Greek companies, by British software firm Rosslyn Analytics, found that the UK is the eighth most at-risk country in the world by this measurement.

The countries with the most Greek-owned local companies are Turkey (415), Serbia (273), Bulgaria (216), Romania (135), and the US (112).

British software firm Rosslyn Analytics’ team of data scientists used its cloud analytics platform, which contains one of the largest databases of interconnected corporate information, to determine the commercial connections between hundreds of British and Greek companies and, as a result, their risk profile.

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Based on declared turnover, they found that the bankruptcy of these companies could see the UK lose more than $727 million.

But this does not come close to the $7.79 billion of declared revenue by Greek-owned companies in Cyprus, or the $3.67 billion in Romania, $3.5 billion in Turkey and $2.84 billion in Russia.

There are 70 British companies with parent companies in Greece. The three largest, based on declared turnover, are Hellenic Petroleum Cyprus (owned by Hellenic Petroleum S.A.), Guava International (owned by Greek Finance Sole Shareholder Co.) and OTE (owned by Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A.).

“The Greek crisis is a wake-up call for globally-minded business leaders,” said Hugh Cox, chief data officer at Rosslyn Analytics. “Most businesses have very little insight into who their suppliers and partners really are.

"These 70 British businesses could at best have financial repercussions or at worst go bust at any moment, and chances are, most of the companies that rely on their products or services have no idea of this risk, because they don’t know that they are Greek-owned."

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