Eurobank

The upcoming rebalancing of the MSCI Greek stock indexes and profit taking after five consecutive days of gains led to losses at Athinon Avenue on Friday, with a huge daily turnover. Notably 70% of trading volume took placing during the closing auctions. The benchmark of the Athens stock market ended May with a monthly advance of 3.87%, though banks lost 2.94%.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank more than doubled its first-quarter net profit on the back of lower provisions for impaired loans and higher fee and commission income, it said on Friday.

Eurobank, which is 2.4% owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 57 million euros ($63.4 million), up from 22 million euros in last year's first quarter.

Eurobank has become the first Greek lender to make use of the government's Hercules scheme to reduce bad loans after gaining finance ministry approval for state guarantees on senior tranches of its Cairo I and II debt securitisations, officials at the bank said on Wednesday.

Despite the hour-long interruption to Tuesday's trading session due to a technical failure, bank stocks staged an impressive rebound of more than 12%, taking the benchmark at Athinon Avenue to fresh gains. The international climate continues to improve as hopes for a coronavirus vaccine keep growing, helping turnover in the local market to recover.

The decision by the European Central Bank to include Greece in an emergency bond-buying program gave Greek securities a much-needed boost on Thursday, with sovereign bond yields tumbling and stocks jumping at Athinon Avenue. Public Power Corporation closed almost at its limit-up, while banks struggled to keep up with the other blue chips.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank raised its net profit in 2019 as provisions for impaired loans eased and said it would now be focusing on profitability. 

Eurobank on Thursday announced the completion of the acquisition of properties housing four Sklavenitis hypermarkets - two in Athens and two in Thessaloniki - with a total area of 90,000 square meters.
These were the properties former subsidiary Grivalia Properties Real Estate Investment Company had agreed to acquire in March 2019.

Greece's third-largest lender Eurobank on Thursday reported higher full-year 2019 net profit compared to a year earlier as provisions for impaired loans eased.

Eurobank, which is 2.4 percent owned by the country's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 127 million euros ($140.86 million), up 36.2 percent from 93 million euros in 2018.

Greek stocks suffered heavy losses at the end of the week as they were affected by the very negative climate abroad regarding the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy as well as the growing tension in northern Syria. This has taken the main index at Athinon Avenue below the 900-point mark, to a two-month low.

Eurobank is putting its fourth portfolio of properties up for sale in the context of a broad program for relieving its financial report of the burden of real estate assets; they amount to 5,100, not including those of former subsidiary Grivalia. The portfolio sale constitutes Eurobank's biggest to date.