Greek metals group moves to Belgium

Viohalco, Greece's biggest metals processing group, has announced it is moving its headquarters and stock market listing to Belgium, the third big firm in a year to flee the austerity-hit country for a more stable, lower-tax jurisdiction, reports Reuters’ Harry Papachristou. Viohalco, with sales of €3.3bn last year, will merge with its Belgian subsidiary Viohalco S.A., whose shares will trade on the Euronext stock market in Brussels, the company said in a stock market filing. "This restructuring aims at strengthening Viohalco's capital structure [and achieving]  a more direct access to international capital markets," the filing said. Higher taxes imposed as part of Greece's international bailout have squeezed local companies' profits and weakened demand. Athens raised the corporate tax rate on undistributed profit to 26% from 20% earlier in the year. Viohalco is one of Greece's most historic metals groups. It accounted alone for about a tenth of total Greek exports before the country plunged into a debt crisis in 2010. However, since 2008, the company has produced five consecutive years of net, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data, having been hit hard by a severe recession which has shaved off about a quarter of the country's economy. Viohalco's market value of €811m makes it Greece's 13th biggest company by market capitalisation, with a weight of 2.5% on the benchmark Athens bourse index.