Alpha Bank

Greece on Monday announced plans to sell a 20% stake in the National Bank of Greece (NBG) after concluding the sale of a 9% stake in Alpha Bank to UniCredit as it looks to divest from the country's lenders.

Bank bailout fund (HFSF) executives have been working on two fronts.

Over the weekend they sought that UniCredit improve its offer for 8.9% of Alpha Bank, as the competitive process was completed last Friday without another offer submitted.

Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank on Friday reported a jump in profits for the first nine months of 2023, as higher rates boosted net interest income and bad loans declined.

Alpha Bank, Greece's fourth-largest lender by market value, reported net earnings of 491 million euros, up 59% from the first nine months of 2022.

Alpha Bank's deal with Italy's second largest bank, UniCredit, was a touch of optimism in the gloomy environment of very low expectations that currently dominates the Greek economy.

Greece's state-controlled bank bailout fund HFSF said on Monday it had launched a process to sell its 9% stake in Alpha Bank.

The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) last week received an offer from Unicredit for the stake as part of the Italian lender's plan to become Alpha Bank's biggest investor.

In mid-2000, Greece had just become the 12th member of the Economic and Monetary Union. For a long time, several European bankers were counting the opportunities and capital gains that could be hidden in the Greek banking system.

Alex Patelis, the chief economic adviser to Greece's Prime Minister, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss the significance of Standard and Poor's decision to upgrade Greece to investment grade and UniCredit's offer to buy Greece's stake in Alpha Bank, while outlining the government's next goals when it comes to the economy. 

Tuesday's session at Athinon Avenue was a one-stock show as it was the first day of trading for Alpha Bank after the major proposal tabled by UniCredit for the Greek lender's stake that bank bailout fund HFSF holds, and the merger of the Italian bank's operations in Romania with those of Alpha. As a result Alpha jumped 12.44%, while most other local stocks registered gains too.

Italian group UniCredit is proceeding to establish a strategic partnership with Alpha Bank, submitting a proposal to acquire the 9% stake held by bank rescue fund HFSF in the lender.

The benchmark of the Greek stock market staged an impressive rebound late in Friday's session to come back from 1% down and close with gains of almost 1%. Banks led the way for the recovery of the index, though that was not enough to offset all its weekly losses.