ATHENS: Greece’s finance minister accused creditors of trying to “terrorize” Greeks into accepting austerity, warning Europe stood to lose as much as Athens if the country is forced from the euro after a referendum on Sunday on bailout terms.
After a week in which Greece defaulted, shuttered its banks and began rationing cash, Greeks vote on Sunday on whether to accept or reject tough conditions sought by international creditors to extend a lending lifeline that has kept the debt-stricken country afloat.
The left-wing government is urging a “No” vote, saying Greece’s European partners are bluffing when they warn that would mean a Greek departure from Europe’s single currency, with unforeseeable consequences for Greece, Europe and the global economy.
Opinion polls on Friday gave the “Yes” camp, which favors accepting the bailout terms, a slender lead but all were within the margin of error and pollsters said the vote was too close to call.
Only one had the “No” vote winning, despite turnout of at least 50,000 opponents of the deal at a rally in central Athens on Friday that appeared significantly bigger than a simultaneous rally by the “Yes” camp.
“What they’re asking us to accept is eternal slavery,” said Ermioni Tenekidou, 54, a teacher.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor and toughest critic, said any so-called Grexit, Greek exit from the euro zone, might only be temporary.
“Greece is a member of the euro zone. There’s no doubt about that. Whether with the euro or temporarily without it: Only the Greeks can answer this question. And it is clear that we will not leave the people in the lurch,” he said.
But it is far from clear how a temporary exit from the 19-nation euro currency bloc might work. Some economists have raised the idea of a temporary suspension, whereby Greece would revert to a national currency for a number of years until its economy stabilized.
‘TERRORISM’
Greece’s European partners say the euro zone is better placed to minimise the impact on its vulnerable southern flank from a Greek exit than several years ago when the debt crisis exploded. But Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Europe stood to lose more than Greece.
“If Greece crashes, a trillion euros (the equivalent of Spain’s GDP) will be lost. It’s too much money and I don’t believe Europe could allow it,” he told Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Varoufakis reiterated he would resign if Greeks vote “Yes,” and accused creditors of trying to terrorize voters by capping a liquidity line to Greek banks.
“What they’re doing with Greece has a name: terrorism,” he told El Mundo. “Why have they forced us to close the banks? To frighten people.”
Greece accounts for barely 2 percent of the euro zone’s economic output, but its exit would represent a massive blow to the prestige of Europe’s grand project to bind its nations into a union they said was unbreakable.
It would also spell even greater hardship for Greece, stricken by one of the worst economic crises in modern times that has left one in four workers without a job, hammered pensions and pay and fueled political instability.
Germany’s Welt a.m. Sonntag newspaper, citing a “senior negotiator” among Greece’s creditors, said the Athens government had money “for perhaps a week, but certainly not much longer.”
Critics accuse Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a 40-year-old former student protest leader, of gambling Greece’s future with a plebiscite called with eight days’ notice after negotiations with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund hit a wall.
They point out that the offer Greeks will vote on is no longer on the table and the question is worded in cryptic legalese, leading the Council of Europe, a major European rights watchdog, to say the plebiscite falls short of international standards of fairness.
Echoing a defiant Tsipras at Friday’s “No” rally, 60-year-old teacher Giorgos Sarafianos said the referendum was a question of “dignity.”
“The only message that can be sent tomorrow is that if we want to be part of the European community, it should not be with our heads bowed,” he said.
Varoufakis accuses creditors of ‘terrorism’
Varoufakis accuses creditors of ‘terrorism’
Saudi Arabia pulls in most of Partners for Growth $450m capital push
- Global private credit fund leans into region’s largest market for growth-stage technology financing
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has captured the vast majority of Partners for Growth’s capital deployed in the Gulf Cooperation Council, as the global private credit fund leans into what it sees as the region’s largest market for growth-stage technology financing.
The San Francisco-based firm has deployed about $450 million in commitments in the GCC, and “the vast majority of that is in Saudi,” said Armineh Baghoomian, managing director at the firm who also serves as head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and co-head of global fintech.
The company was one of the earliest lenders to Saudi fintech unicorn Tabby, and it’s clear the Kingdom is providing fertile territory for ongoing investments.
“We don’t target a specific country because of some other mandate. It’s just a larger market in the region, so in the types of deals we’re doing, it ends up weighing heavily to Saudi Arabia,” Baghoomian said.
Partners for Growth, which Baghoomian described as a global private credit fund focused on “growth debt solutions,” lends to emerging tech and innovation companies, particularly those that struggle to access traditional credit.
“We’re going into our 22nd year,” she said, tracing the strategy back to its roots in a Bay Area investment bank debt practice in the mid-1980s.
Today, the firm lends globally, she said, deploying capital where it sees fit across markets including Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, as well as Latin America and the GCC, where it has been active for about six years.
Shariah structures dominate PFG’s Gulf deals
In the Gulf, the firm’s structures are often shaped by local expectations. “Most of the deals we’ve done in the region are Shariah-compliant,” Baghoomian said.
“In terms of dollars we’ve deployed, they’re Shariah-structured,” she added.
“Usually it’s the entrepreneur who requires that, or requests it, and we’re happy to structure it,” Baghoomian said, adding that the firm also views Shariah structures as “a better security position in certain regions.”
Growth debt steps in where banks cannot
Baghoomian framed growth debt as a practical complement to equity for companies that have moved beyond the earliest stage but are not yet “bankable.”
She said: “The lower-cost bank type facilities don’t exist. There’s that gap.”
Baghoomian added that companies want to grow, “but they don’t want to keep selling big chunks of equity. That implies giving up control and ownership.”
For businesses with the fundamentals private credit providers look for, she said, debt can extend runway while limiting dilution.
“As long as they have predictable revenue, clear unit economics, and the right assets that can be financed, this is a nice solution to continue their path,” she added.
That role becomes more pronounced as equity becomes harder to raise at later stages, Baghoomian believes.
She pointed to a gap that “might be widening” around “series B-plus” fundraising, as later-stage investors become “more discriminating” about which deals they back.
Asset-heavy fintechs cannot scale on equity alone
For asset-heavy technology businesses, Baghoomian argued, debt is not just an option but a necessity.
She pointed to buy-now-pay-later platform Tabby as an example of a model built on funding working capital at scale.
“Tabby is an asset-heavy business,” she said. “They’re providing installment plans to consumers, but they still need to pay the merchant on day one. That’s capital-intensive. You need a lot of cash to do that.”
Equity alone, she added, would be structurally inefficient. “You would not want to just raise equity. The founders, employees, everyone would own nothing and lose a lot of control.”
We don’t target a specific country because of some other mandate. It’s just a larger market in the region, so in the types of deals we’re doing, it ends up weighing heavily to Saudi Arabia.
Armineh Baghoomian, PFG managing director and head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and co-head of global fintech
Baghoomian said those dynamics are common across other asset-intensive models, including lending platforms and businesses that trade in large inventories such as vehicles or property. “Those are businesses that inherently end up having to raise quite a bit of credit,” she said. Partners for Growth’s relationship with Tabby also reflects how early the firm can deploy capital when the structure is asset-backed. “We started with Tabby with $10 million after their seed round, and then we grew, and we continue to be a lender to them,” Baghoomian said.
“On the asset-backed side, we can go in quite early,” she said. “Most of the fintechs we work with are very early stage, post-seed, and then we’ll grow with them for as long as possible.”
As the market for private credit expands in the Gulf, Baghoomian emphasized discipline — both for lenders and borrowers.
For investors assessing startups seeking debt, she said the key is revenue quality and predictability, not just topline growth. “Revenue is one thing, but how predictable is it? How consistent is it? Is it growing?” she said. “This credit is not permanent capital. You have to pay it back. There’s a servicing element to it.”
Her advice to founders was more blunt: stress-test the downside before taking leverage.
“You have to do a stress test and ask: if growth slows by 30 to 40 percent, can I still service the debt? Can I still pay back what I’ve taken?” she said.
Baghoomian warned against chasing the biggest facility on offer. “Sometimes companies compete on how much a lender is providing them,” she said. “We try to teach founders: take as much as you need, but not as much as you can. You have to pay that back.”
Partners for Growth positions itself as an alternative to banks not only because many growth-stage companies cannot access bank financing, but because it can tailor structures to each business.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Partners for Growth positions itself as an alternative to banks not only because many growth-stage companies cannot access bank financing, but because it can tailor structures to each business.
• The firm lends globally deploying capital where it sees fit across markets including Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, as well as Latin America and the GCC, where it has been active for about six years.
One of Partners for Growth’s differentiators, Baghoomian said, is how bespoke its financing is compared with bank products.
“These facilities are very bespoke. They’re custom to each company and how they need to use the money,” she said, adding that the fund is not offering founders a rigid menu of standardized options.
“No two deals of ours look alike,” she said, framing that flexibility as especially important at the growth stage, when business needs can shift quickly.
That customization, she added, extends beyond signing. Baghoomian said the firm aims to structure facilities so companies can actually deploy capital without being constrained, adding: “We don’t want to handcuff you. We don’t want to constrain you in any way.”
As a company evolves, she said the financing can evolve too, because what works on day one often won’t fit nine months later.
“We’ll revise structures,” she said, describing flexibility as core to how private credit can serve fast-moving tech businesses.
She added that a global lender can also bring operating support and market pattern recognition, while still accounting for local nuance.
Baghoomian expects demand for private credit in the Gulf to keep rising. “They are going to require credit, for sure,” she said, pointing to the scale of new platforms and projects.
“I don’t see it shrinking,” she said, adding that Partners for Growth is seeing more demand and is in late-stage discussions with several companies, though she declined to name them.
PFG to stay selective despite rising competition
Competition among lenders has increased since the firm began deploying in the region, Baghoomian said, calling that “very healthy for the ecosystem.”
Most of what the firm does in the region is asset-backed, Baghoomian said, often through first warehouse facilities for businesses financing receivables or other tangible exposures, “almost always Shariah.”
Keeping Egypt on its watchlist
Beyond the Gulf, Baghoomian said the firm is monitoring Egypt closely, though macroeconomic volatility has delayed deployments.
“We looked at Egypt very aggressively a few years ago, and then the macro issues changed,” she said, adding that the firm continues to speak with companies in the country and track conditions.
Even as private credit becomes more common in the region, Baghoomian underscored that debt is not universally appropriate.
“Not every company should take a loan or credit,” she said. “You don’t take it just to take it. It should be getting you to the next milestone.”
