Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. SA's decision to leave its homeequity market in Athens for London increases the chance that Greecewill be demoted to an emerging market next year, MSCI Inc.said.

The index provider put Greece's stock market under review fordowngrade from developed status on June 20 and will make a finaldecision as part of its annual reclassification in June next year.The MSCI Greece Index consists of just two companies, with theworld's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler accounting for 75 percentby weight.

Market size “is the main driver for us to make that proposal,but on top of that, one needs to admit that there are still someoperational issues that have been present since the inclusion ofMSCI Greece in developed markets back in 2001,” Sebastian Lieblich,global head of index management at MSCI in Geneva, said in a phoneinterview yesterday. Coca-Cola's exit is “a very importantdevelopment, and this is something we'd need to assess howinvestors see this move.”