Bank stock growth brings gains for HFSF
The local stock market’s strong upward trajectory means that the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF), which recapitalized Greece’s main banks last year, has recovered almost all of the 24.4 billion euros spent on Alpha, Piraeus, National and Eurobank.
The Alpha stock stands at 0.695 euros or 58 percent higher than the share capital increase price of 0.44 euros, while the stocks of Piraeus and National are currently just 2.35 percent and 2.80 percent lower respectively than when acquired by the HFSF.
Eurobank is the only lender bringing losses to the fund, having failed to attract any private capital.
Therefore, according to the current capitalization of the four systemic lenders, the value of the HFSF’s holdings amounts to 21 billion euros. When one adds the 8 billion euros that remain unused in the fund after the recap, the government could in theory expect to collect some 30 billion euros from the package of 50 billion set aside for the recovery of the domestic credit sector, provided banks do not require any additional funds according to the results of the stress tests by BlackRock Solutions.
