Japonica's Mysterious Bid for Greek Bonds

After operating behind the scenes for two decades, Paul Kazarian is stepping into the spotlight again. Days after the June 3 announcement that his investment firm, Japonica Partners, was offering to buy as much as €2.9 billion ($3.8 billion) of Greek government debt, about 10 percent of all outstanding bonds, he sat on a bike in the gym at the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens, according to people who saw him. The lodging is favored by hedge fund managers and overseas investors scouring Europe’s worst economy for distressed assets. Kazarian, 57, wore a T-shirt plastered with the Japonica logo and slogans such as “Delta Force” and “Catalyst to Create Extraordinary Value.” He put an inch-wide spiral-bound presentation covered with the same logo on the bike next to his, near the gym entrance in full view of anyone walking in.

“Without saying anything about the substance of buying Greek bonds, such as whether it’s a good investment, you have to admit” Kazarian’s offer “made everyone look up and take notice,” says Mike Lederman, a former Japonica partner who’s now a managing partner of investment bank Spectrum Capital Group. “That kind of move is classic Kazarian.”