Methodology used to compile the Greek Rich List - By Philip Beresford
The process used for compilation
Since its first commission in the summer of 2006, Greek Rich List’s readers have been helping by suggesting many names. Everyone’s enthusiasm has really pushed the project to completion. We have managed to increase the coverage from 50 to 100, though the bottom line has fallen to £5m.
They have suggested over 1000 names for this list. All were checked and unfortunately the vast majority did not make the cut. We have only included those millionaires who we feel we can prove in terms of assets and profits. Many who are reckoned to be very rich in the community do not produce full accounts, preferring to file only abbreviated accounts at Companies House. We have not included them but would like to in future lists if they will give us access to their management accounts showing all the details of profits, net assets etc. There were thousands of profiles to choose from. In all we searched, via special software linked to Companies House, some 15,000 Greek or Greek Cypriot names who were company directors. There are, for example, 495 directors with surnames starting Panayi, another 1681 with surnames starting Christo, and 324 starting Nicolao. To name but a few. Obviously we could not look at every set of latest accounts for every director, but our software enabled us to scan all those directors with stakes in companies which had profits of over £250,000 or net assets of £2.5m or more. In this way we were able to gradually build up our list one entry at a time. Those who qualify for this list include Greek Cypriot immigrants, their offspring and Greek-born but British resident business people. We have included some Greek business people based in Greece and Cyprus who have a close association with Britain in terms of education, residence and stock market flotation’s in London.
The valuations are based on the share price of quoted companies in the late autumn and early winter of 2007, well after the global stock market turmoil and credit crunch had started. For private companies we have looked at their latest accounts and multiplied the profit figure by just ten to arrive at a company valuation. This was in line with valuations as given in the Companies section of the Financial Times during that period. But we have also been influenced by levels of borrowings, the strength of the balance sheet and the like in arriving at our figures. Where private companies pay large salaries to their owner directors we have added a proportion of the salary to our profit calculation. When companies have been sold, we have taken the sale proceeds as a basis for calculating fortunes, less a notional tax charge where appropriate.
We have counted family trusts as part of family shareholding in making our assessments of company ownership.
Inevitably, we will have missed people who feel they should have been included. We ask them to send in their details for future issues to info@greekrichlist.com. All our calculations for valuations are ballpark figures, which may be challenged by those listed. But we have tried to follow the industry norms prevailing and, in the case of many private companies, it is generally accepted that their profits are somewhat understated (quite legitimately) to minimise their tax liability. We will adjust valuations next year for any who feel that we have been too wide of the mark.
We have used the National Press, electronic libraries such as Factiva, Google, Wikipedia, Companies House, software provided for company profits and ownership, namely Dash (short for Directors and Shareholder) and Fame (short for Financial Analysis Made Easy), both supplied by Bureau van Dijk and Greek Cypriots in the UK. |
