Takeovers involving Greek companies rose sharply to reach 7.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, up from 4.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, but were still much lower than the 28.2 billion U.S. dollars reached in 2008, according to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday.

According to the Bloomberg report, investment bankers were gradually returning to Greece one year after the country was excluded from bond markets, lured by a reorganisation of the country's financial sector and the government's privatisations programme.

It also cited a source within the Greek finance ministry saying that the government was in the process of hiring banks as consultants in 10 privatisations.