Piraeus Bank takes over Geniki Bank

Societe Generale has agreed to sell its Greek subsidiary for €1m to Piraeus Bank and provide the lossmaking lender with €444m in fresh capital in a deal already approved by Greece’s international creditors, FT reports.

The French lender would inject €281m into Geniki Bank and also subscribe to €163m of bonds that would be convertible into Piraeus shares or tier one capital.

The deal comes as Greece tries to accelerate consolidation of its bank sector and draw down €23bn of international funding earmarked for recapitalising the country’s biggest lenders.

Michalis Sallas, chairman of Piraeus, said: “The acquisition of Geniki will further strengthen our capital and funding sources and improves our positioning for the upcoming recapitalisation.”

Following the acquisition, Piraeus would have pro forma total assets of €77bn, net loans of €46bn and customer deposits of €37bn.

SocGen would become the second French bank making a sizeable payment in order to exit the depressed Greek market. Credit Agricole this week wrapped up a deal to sell its Greek subsidiary Emporiki to Alpha Bank, the country’s third-largest lender, for €1 and inject €600m of fresh capital. Analysts said they expect one more transaction to be agreed before the recapitalisation gets under way: the sale of the healthy assets of Hellenic PostBank, a lossmaking state controlled lender.

PIRAEUS BANK Greece

Societe Generale

Piraeus Bank SA Athens

Geniki Bank

Societe Generale

ATEbank

Michalis Sallas

Greece Central Bank

Hellenic Financial Stability Fund

HFFS