The complete exit of the HFSF from the Piraeus bank, in addition to the significant offers that were submitted, also stands out for the profile of the foreign investors who were present in the book building process.
Leading names of the international investment community rushed to place themselves in the bank’s stock and take advantage of the prospects it presents.
According to information, the Norwegian Norges, the world’s largest investment fund, and the powerful banks Goldman Sachs, Lazard and Wellington stand out on the list.
The share composition is changing
It is worth noting here that the share base of Piraeus is now changing drastically. From the 73% owned by private individuals until now, they will now own 100%, while the ratio of natural and legal persons will be of interest.
Until December 2023, that is, based on the latest official data, legal entities held 67% and natural persons 6%, of 73%. Also, the bank directly owned 3,975,419 Own Shares, representing 0.32% of its share capital.
The success of Piraeus Bank’s public offering of shares far exceeded expectations with the Financial Stability Fund (HFS) raising bids of around €11 billion. A characteristic of the interest is that the sale price of the shares is set at the upper limit of the price range, i.e. 4 euros.
The disposal of Piraeus bank shares, which leads to its full privatization, is a vote of confidence for its management and the bank’s prospects.
“Queues” of investors
Investor participation exceeded even the most optimistic estimates, given the large rise in price over the past 18 months, with some of the biggest institutional “houses” participating such as Norges, Goldman Sachs, Wellington, Pictet, Schroeder’s, Lazard, GIC Singapore, Vanguard , Fine investment, Millenium etc.
Among them the most conservative wealth funds such as GIC Singapore and Norges. It is noted that GIC is a sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, with assets under management of 770 billion dollars and is famous for the particularly strict criteria on the basis of which it implements its investments around the world.
However, many hedge funds, mainly from the USA, participated and aggressively invested in the Piraeus placement, expecting quick returns.
The allocation
The first winners of the Piraeus share allocation from the combined placement of Piraeus shares owned by HFSF were Greek private investors. Based on the allocation decided by the Board of Directors. of the Fund, 20% of the combined allocation, i.e. 67.5 million shares, is directed to the Greeks.
Based on valid subscriptions, 253,841,298 shares were requested in the IPO (3.76 times oversubscription over the allotment of 67.5 million shares). Domestic private investors requested 130,348,373 shares and will be allocated, as mentioned above, 43,887,889 shares. In other words, they will get one third of the shares they asked for. On the contrary, special investors will get 19% of the shares they requested.
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