Eurobank

The planned merger between the Eurobank Group and Grivalia Properties that was announced on Monday is aimed at the full streamlining of Greece's third-largest lender through the drastic reduction of its portfolio of nonperforming exposures from 39 percent of all loans at end-September to 15 percent at end-2019 and below 10 percent in 2021.

The euphoria over the Eurobank-Grivalia merger lasted just a few hours at the Greek bourse on Monday, as concerns over next week's rebalancing of the MSCI index, which may trigger a further outflow of investors, curtailed early gains and led the banks index into negative territory.

Greek 10-year government bond yields on Monday saw their biggest one-day fall since September after a strong rally in Italian bonds helped boost support for peripheral assets.

Analysts also attributed the move to a boost for Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender, on news it will acquire real estate company Grivalia Properties.

Eurobank, Greece's third-largest lender, will acquire real estate company Grivalia Properties, a Eurobank official told Reuters on Sunday.

The deal will be a share-swap transaction and boost the lender's capital base by about 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion), the official said without giving the value of the deal.
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Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank on Thursday reported a sharp quarterly rise in net profit in July to September, on higher fee revenues and gains from international operations.

Three out of five banks that have issued loans to Folli Follie disagreed that the troubled jewelry company should be granted an injunction to protect it from its lenders when an Athens court examined its second application late on Thursday.

An agreement for the transfer of Piraeus Bank's subsidiary in Bulgaria (PBB) to Eurobank's arm in the neighboring country, Eurobank Bulgaria (Postbank), was confirmed on Wednesday by both Greek banking groups.

Greece's Eurobank said on Wednesday it had agreed to acquire Piraeus Bank Bulgaria for 75 million euros.

The completion of the transaction was subject to regulatory and supervisory approvals, the bank said, while the conclusion of the transaction was expected to take place during the first quarter next year. [Reuters]

Unknown individuals vandalized a bank branch in an apparent protest at the death of Zak Kostopoulos, an LGBTQ activist who died in October after being attacked by a jewelry store owner and another man in downtown Athens.

The steep losses of Greek bank stocks since May, which have led to them halving in value, will likely see them relegated from international indexes, and therefore dropping off the radar of major foreign portfolios.