Eurobank

After another impasse at Monday's Euro Working Group, the Athens bourse shook off the pressure on bank stocks on Tuesday, with the majority of stocks and the benchmark heading higher on a day of healthy turnover.

The new three-year plans aimed at cutting bad loans to be presented to the Single Supervisory Mechanism by banks at end-March will be bolder and more front-heavy.

Buying interest focused on bank stocks at the Greek bourse on Monday, resulting in major gains for the sector and the benchmark, which is edging ever closer to the 700-point level, although the majority of stocks headed south.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender by assets, said on Friday that its takeover of Grivalia Properties was given the green light by the European Union's competition authority because it meets state aid rules.

In November Eurobank agreed a 780-million-euro deal to buy Grivalia Properties to boost its capital and speed up the reduction of sour loans.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis warned on Wednesday in Parliament of the possibility that local banks may require a fresh capital injection that the Greek taxpayers could once again have to cover.

In doing so, he started to prepare citizens for the consequences of the upcoming plans for tackling nonperforming loans.

Italian non-performing loan management company Cerved Group said on Thursday it had agreed to buy the property services arm of Greek lender Eurobank for up to 13 million euros ($15 million).

Moody's Investor Service informed its clients that Greek systemic banks are on a good course to meeting their nonperforming exposure reduction targets, with Eurobank and National being closer to making it by 2021, while Alpha has the strongest tangible capital base.

One of the biggest surveying service suppliers and nonperforming loan management companies, Italian group Cerved, is entering the Greek market after obtaining the necessary licenses for managing NPLs from the Bank of Greece and acquiring Eurobank's subsidiary, Eurobank Property Services (EPS).

The Greek stock market succumbed to pressure early on Wednesday but eventually narrowed its morning losses almost down to zero by the close.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 656.92 points, down less than 0.01 percent from Tuesday's 656.96 points. The large-cap FTSE-25 index contracted 0.39 percent to 1,720.96 points, while the mid-cap index expanded 0.46 percent.

In an interview with Kathimerini, Indo-Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa, head of Fairfax Financial Holdings, expresses optimism that Greece can achieve a strong economic recovery in the coming years.

Apart from Eurobank and Grivalia Properties REIC, a Greece-based real estate investment company, Watsa has also invested in the Eurolife ERB insurance group and other companies.