Christos Megalou, CEO of Piraeus Bank, spoke about one of the most important days of recent years, who, on the occasion of the completion of the placement of the Financial Stability Fund’s interest in the bank, marked the beginning of today’s (11/3) meeting at Athens Stock Exchange. As Megalou mentioned, the plan for Piraeus to take the lead and be the best bank in Greece is gradually being implemented.
For his part, the president of Piraeus, Giorgos Hatjinikolou, characteristically stated that today the bank is not just changing the page. He changes the book. It is a change both for the stock market and for the image of Greece internationally, he said.
The head of HEXA, Mr. Yannos Kontopoulos, spoke about the practical confirmation of the dynamics of Greece and the work of the HFSF in the promotion of the banking system. The quality of investors is the goal of all of us, he added, so that we can become equal to the global community. The success of Piraeus, and a little earlier of Athens International Airport, proves the potential of the AX, added Mr. Kontopoulos.
The head of the HFSF, Ilias Xirouhakis, confirmed that today is an important day for the competitive and investment attractive European, Piraeus. “The success is unprecedented, even internationally,” he said, noting that such a highly oversubscribed and overpriced secondary transaction has no historical precedent.
Finally, the head of the Capital Market Commission, Ms. Vasiliki Lazarakou, spoke about the success of the project of Piraeus and the HFSF, which proves the recovery of confidence in the Greek capital market. “Today is a turning point. And we will continue relentlessly in upgrading the Greek capital market”, he said.
The next day
The stock exchange community and not only is waiting with particular interest for the reaction of the bank’s shares and where exactly “the ball will sit”. The small premium, as market circles report, creates an upward momentum, which of course remains to be proven in practice. HFSF circles point out that the divestment from Piraeus is the only one at the European level that managed to attract a premium, since all the others were made available at a discount.
However, it is considered a given that the changes in Piraeus’ weightings will bring significant inflows to the stock in the next period. After all, the Athens Stock Exchange, following the completion of the share offering, proceeded to change the Free Float coefficient from 55% to 82% in all indices in which the company’s shares participate.
We had similar changes in the FTSE Russell indices, after the completion of the share change in Piraeus, with an increase in weighting. The change, according to FTSE Russell, will take effect from March 18, with the weighting of Piraeus increasing from 54.3% to 81.3%, with the same total number of shares of 1,249,995,345. The change applies to the FTSE All-World, FTSE MPF All World, FTSE Global Large Cap and FTSE Emerging indices.
According to previous estimates, changes in Piraeus’ weightings will bring significant inflows to the stock.
The placement broke the counters
It is recalled that according to an announcement by the HFSF, the Fund managed to raise approximately 11 billion euros for 27% of Piraeus, while the price was set as expected at 4 euros for both Greeks and foreigners who participated in the bank’s placement.
“The oversubscription of the participation in Piraeus Bank exceeded our most optimistic expectations (about 9 times for the international book, 4 times for the Greek book or about 8 times for the total offer),” said the CEO of the HFSF. Ilias Xirouhakis.
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