Piraeus Bank Expects to Raise $1.66 Billion Though Equity Offering

Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s four big lenders, expects to raise a total of 1.38 billion euros ($1.66 billion) through the capital increase process that started earlier in the week.

Piraeus Bank launched the equity offering to raise new capital via a placement with international investors and a domestic public offering.

It announced that it has successfully completed the combined offering of 1,200,000,000 new ordinary registered voting shares, each having a nominal value of €1.00.

Based on the results of the three-day book-building process, following consultation with the Joint Global Coordinators of the Institutional Offering (Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE and UBS Europe SE), the Board of Directors of Piraeus set the offer price at €1.15 per new share.

This offer price represents the top of the initial offer price range of €1.00 to €1.15 per New Share approved by Piraeus’ Board of Directors on 16 April 2021.

As a result, Piraeus is expected to generate gross proceeds of €1.38 billion from the Combined Offering, a statement from the bank reads.

It adds that the offering attracted a broad participation of domestic and international investors, ending multiple times oversubscribed.

“A vote of confidence” to Piraeus Bank

“We are very pleased with the response to our capital raise,” Christos Megalou, Piraeus Group’s CEO, commented.

“The successful completion of the share offering, as well the quality and pluralism of the participating investors, is a vote of confidence to Piraeus Group and its strategy and to the prospects of the Greek economy,” he added.

“This capital raise will enable Piraeus Bank to pursue its ultimate target for a definitive balance sheet clean-up in the next 12 months and fuel its ambition to be a strong, future-fit, well-capitalized bank, superiorly positioned to support the Greek economy as it recovers from the pandemic,” Megalou said.

Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE and UBS Europe SE are acting as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners of the Institutional Offering.

BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Ambrosia CAPITAL, AXIA Ventures Group, Euroxx Securities S.A. and Piraeus Securities S.A. are acting as Joint Bookrunners of the Institutional Offering. Pantelakis Securities S.A. and WOOD & Company are acting as Co-Managers of the Institutional Offering.