Greece Sells Entire Stake in Piraeus Bank

Greece announced on Monday that it is selling its entire 27 percent stake in Piraeus Bank. The announcement was met with strong demand by investors.

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF)—a bank recapitalization tool established at the start of Greece’s bailout programs—said on Monday it will sell its full stake in the lender. The fund previously said on Sunday that it would sell 22 percent of the bank, while reserving the right to offload its entire holding.

“After being informed by the managers of the international offering on the demand expressed so far in the international offering, [the] intention [was expressed] to exercise the right to increase the number of the shares offered in the offering by 62,518,361 offer shares so that the total offer shares increase from 275,080,789 to 337,599,150,” an HFSF announcement said.

Piraeus Bank is Greece’s third-largest lender

Piraeus Bank, Greece’s third largest lender, will be the third of the largest four Greek banks to be fully privatized since last autumn after the upgrade of the Greek economy to investment-grade status.

“Demand is very strong and the offering has been oversubscribed in a few minutes after the books opened,” a source told Reuters, adding that up to twenty-five percent will be offered to institution investors and a two percent to retail investors.

The initial price range was set between 3.7 and 4 euros per share and the sale will be concluded by March 6, HFSF said in a statement late on Sunday.

Piraeus Bank has a market capitalization of 4.9 billion euros. Its shares were up 3.26 percent on Monday at 4.1 euros.

After injecting about 50 billion euros ($54 billion) to prop up Greece’s four largest banks in return for shares during the debt crisis which ended in 2018, HFSF started divesting its stakes last year.

It divested its holdings in Eurobank and Alpha Bank and sold part of its stake in National Bank last autumn.

BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs Bank and UBS are acting as joint coordinators for the offering of the Piraeus stake.

History of Piraeus Bank

A group of shipowners in Piraeus founded Banque du Pirée in 1916 to finance trade. The bank started trading on the Athens Exchange in 1918.

The Greek government bought the bank in 1975 and transformed it into a universal bank. The new headquarters designed by Sir Basil Spence were built on Stadiou Street in the center of Athens.

In December 1991, the government privatized the bank, which has grown in size and scope since then.

In May 2022, the Financial Times included the Bank in the list of “Europe’s Climate Leaders” thanks to the great reduction of greenhouse gas emissions over the five-year period from 2015 to 2020.

Since 2019, when the bank became one of the founding partners of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking, Piraeus Bank has been systematically progressing towards sustainable banking by developing infrastructure, policies, and strategies that integrate the best ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate) criteria in its operations.