Law 89/1967 allows inter alia foreign (non-Greek) shipping and shipping related service companies, to establish branch offices in Greece and benefit from certain tax benefits. Law 89/1967(and relevant Law 378/68) was amended repeatedly (last amendment by Law 3427/2005).
The conditions under which a foreign shipping company may be established in Greece under Law 89/67 is governed more particularly by Art.25 of Law 27/1975, which provides that the company must be exclusively concerned with the management, commercial exploitation, chartering, insurance, or brokerage in the sale and purchase, chartering, construction or insurance of commercial ships with capacity of over 500 GT under Greek or foreign flags and which are concerned with international trade.
All companies need a permit to operate, issued by joint decision of the Ministers of the Economy and of Merchant Marine, which sets out the type of business conducted and must be published in the Government Gazette. The permit also sets any conditions on the operation of business.
Such companies which operate as insurance intermediaries can only intermediate insurance for commercial ships with capacity of over 500 GT under Greek or foreign flag and concerned with international trade. They cannot intermediate any other class of insurance.
