The chief executive of the venture capital arm of the National Bank of Greece (and son of former prime minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis) last month created Bosphorus Capital Partners, a private equity fund that will invest in small and medium-size Turkish businesses. The project, which aims for annual returns of 25 percent or better, will make business history as the first partnership between Greek and Turkish financial institutions. NBG, Turkey,s Garanti Securities and J.P. Morgan will each contribute $15 million to the fund, which they will run jointly. An additional $55 million will be raised from international investors. The younger Mitsotakis, involvement is especially noteworthy because his father’s administration, from 1990 to 1993, was often at odds with Turkey over the sovereignty of Cyprus and the Aegean Islands. “Bosphorus is an important building block in normalizing relations between the two countries, and I am the son of a politician, but neither NBG nor our partners are conducting foreign policy,” says the 32-year-old Harvard MBA. “Turkish inflation is falling, and Turkish companies are overleveraged and require a lot of capital. There is also only one other private equity fund in the country. This is simply a great investment opportunity.”
