National Bank of Greece

National Bank of Greece announced a first-half profit after tax of €530 million Tuesday, slightly lower than the €546 million posted in the first half of 2022.

Core profit after tax stood at €508 million for the half, of which €288 million was in the second quarter, with return on tangible equity exceeding 16%, the bank said.

Greece will start selling stakes in its four largest banks this fall, sector officials and bankers said on Monday, marking the latest milestone in the country's recovery from the financial meltdown it suffered starting in 2009.

Greece on Tuesday raised 3.5 billion euros in cash and bonds from a new 15-year bond issue, its debt agency said, marking the nation's first bond sale since June's national election.

Investor demand topped 13 billion euros and the final pricing was set at mid-swaps plus 125 basis points, a yield of about 4.42%, the Public Debt Management Agency said in a filing.

The banking sector shook off foreign and domestic concerns - related to the decline of US lender First Republic and the promise by main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to nationalize National Bank of Greece if he comes to power - and swung to gains at the end of Wednesday's bourse session, leaving the benchmark with moderate gains.

SMEs around Greece impacted by COVID-19 are eligible for funding from a new 1.125-billion-euro financing scheme by National Bank of Greece (NBG), itself supported by the European Guarantee Fund (EGF).

Greece raised 2 billion euros ($2.43 billion) by reopening a 30-year bond through a private placement with two Greek banks, according to the official government gazette, the first borrowing action for 2021.

National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank participated in the transaction. The Greek debt agency issued a 30-year bond last year through a private placement.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) announced on Tuesday that it had entered into a definite agreement with Bain Capital Credit for the sale of a Romanian-risk corporate nonperforming exposures portfolio ("Project Danube") with a total gross book value of around 174 million euros.

As of January, Greek banks will implement reduced installment programs for well-serviced loans of those affected by the pandemic - businesses and households - that had been frozen since last April. 

The announcement came on Tuesday as the nine-month banking "moratoriums" gradually begin to expire at the end of December.

Porto Carras is set to have a new owner, as Technical Olympic has agreed to sell the emblematic tourism resort at Halkidiki in central Macedonia to the Ivan Savvidis group's Belterra Investments for 205 million euros.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) on Tuesday reported sharply lower net profit in the fourth quarter compared to July-to-September on the back of weaker trading and net interest income and higher provisions for impaired loans.