Greece’s biggest lenders poised to bid for Hellenic Postbank
Eurobank Ergasias SA, Alpha Bank SA, National Bank of Greece SA and Piraeus Bank SA said they plan to place separate bids for state-controlled Hellenic Postbank SA.
Offers are due Tuesday and a sale must be agreed by July 15, according to terms agreed with the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and the European Commission, spokesmen for the banks said.
Greece is seeking to sell the nation’s fifth-biggest lender as part of an overhaul of Greek banking that has focused on merging lenders and strengthening capital. By combining with Hellenic Postbank, which received 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in capital after splitting its bad assets, Greek lenders get access to about 12 billion euros of deposits.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is advising the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund on the sale.
Eurobank and National Bank of Greece earlier this year postponed their planned merger after the banks were told to raise capital separately. In the last year, Alpha bought Emporiki Bank from Credit Agricole SA (ACA) and Piraeus bought Millennium Bank, Geniki Bank SA and Cyprus’s Laiki and Bank of Cyprus Pcl. [Bloomberg]
