Last reviewed 17 October 2026 · Demetre E. Katsouris, Managing Partner
In a nutshell. In a Greek project financing, the lender is repaid from the project’s own revenues — the sale of units, the hotel’s operating income, the energy produced — and secured on the project’s assets, rather than on the sponsor’s general balance sheet. The legal work consists of setting up the project company, allocating construction and completion risk between sponsor, contractor and lender, and creating a security package that can be enforced in Greece. Katsouris Law Firm advises sponsors and developers through each stage.
How is a Greek project financing structured?
- The project company. Usually a société anonyme formed for the single project, so that its assets and liabilities are ring-fenced and so that it can issue bonds. Its articles, shareholders’ agreement and board rules are drafted with the lenders’ requirements in view.
- Equity and subordinated debt. The sponsor’s contribution — commonly required before the first drawdown — and any shareholder loans, subordinated to the senior lenders by agreement.
- The senior financing. A bond loan or a facility agreement, with drawdowns tied to construction progress certified by the lenders’ engineer.
- The project contracts. Land acquisition or antiparochi agreement, construction contract, design and supervision appointments, for a hotel the management or franchise agreement, and for energy the grid and offtake arrangements.
- Direct agreements. Agreements between the lender and the key counterparties — contractor, hotel operator — giving the lender notice of default and the right to step in or to transfer the contract to a substitute.
What risks does the lender’s lawyer examine?
Title and Cadastre position; zoning and the building permit, including the effect of the 2026 Special Spatial Planning Framework for Tourism on hotel projects; environmental approval; the contractor’s capacity, price mechanism and liquidated damages; insurance; and any public funding conditions that restrict transfer of the asset or change of control. These are the same questions the firm’s construction and real-estate practices answer daily, which is why the sponsor’s lawyer should address them before the lender raises them.
Conditions precedent and drawdown
The conditions precedent — corporate approvals, registered security, permits, insurance certificates, equity evidence, legal opinions — determine when the first euro is drawn. The firm prepares a conditions-precedent schedule at term-sheet stage and assembles the documents in parallel with negotiation, so that signing and first drawdown are not separated by months of document collection.
Frequently asked questions
Does project finance require a separate company? Not legally, but lenders almost always require one, so that the security covers the whole project and the borrower carries no unrelated liabilities.
What happens if construction costs rise? The documents allocate overruns: a fixed-price construction contract, a sponsor cost-overrun undertaking, a contingency line, or a combination; the allocation is negotiated before signing.
Can the lender take over the project? Through enforcement of the share pledge or of the security over the assets, or through step-in under a direct agreement; Greek law has no general security-trust concept, so where there are several lenders security is held through the bondholders’ representative of arts. 63–64 of Law 4548/2018.
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This page is general information and does not constitute legal advice. It reflects the law as at the date shown and may change.It is legal information, not financial, credit or investment advice.
