Eurobank to buy back HFSF stake

Bank bailout fund HFSF’s divestment from Eurobank ended on Friday without any expressions of interest by other investors, Kathimerini understands. 

The final announcements are expected by Monday with the acceptance of the proposal submitted by the bank for the repurchase of the shares held by the fund at 1.80 euros per share.

The proposal concerns 52,080,673 shares, which correspond to 1.4% of the bank’s share capital, and validates the management’s decision to become the first bank without the participation of the fund, which, despite its small percentage, has special rights as a shareholder. As Eurobank’s management has announced, the bank intends to cancel the shares it acquires, boosting earnings per share in favor of existing shareholders.

The offered price is close to the upper limit approved by Eurobank’s general meeting of shareholders last July, which had set a limit of €1.90 euros per share. 

Through the acceptance of the proposal, the fund will collect €93.7 million euros and the transaction paves the way for the gradual closing of the cycle that started with the debt crisis in Greece and led to three bank recapitalizations, the first in 2013, the second in 2014 and the third in 2015 with the fund’s participation in their share capital.

In total, according to Kathimerini data, the fund has invested €31.5 billion to date in the four systemic banks and another €500 million recently in Attica Bank, while the cost to cover the liquidity gap left behind by smaller banks that closed in the previous decade was also significant.

As far as systemic banks are concerned, the fund’s participation was either in the form of a share purchase or through its participation in the COCOs issue.

The HFSF has invested €6.3 billion in Eurobank, controlling to date 1.4% of its share capital; €11.2 billion in National, controlling 40.4% of its share capital; €4 billion in Alpha, controlling 9% of its shares; €9.9 billion in Piraeus, controlling 27% of its share capital; and €500 million in Attica, of which it controls 69.5%.