Piraeus bank prices share issue to cover capital hole

Piraeus Bank priced a share offering to raise 1.34 billion euros to plug a capital hole at 0.30 euros per share after a one-for-100 reverse share split, Greece's second-largest lender said on Saturday.

Piraeus said the 1.34 billion euros ($1.43 billion) raised from the share issue will plug a capital shortfall identified under the baseline scenario of European Central Bank stress tests last month.

The bank will issue new shares and contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) to the country's bank rescue fund HFSF to cover a remaining capital shortfall under the ECB stress test adverse scenario.

Piraeus, which is 66.9 percent owned by HFSF, was found to have a capital hole of 4.93 billion euros under more adverse assumptions. The ECB's supervisory mechanism (SSM) has approved a total of 873 million euros in so-called capital actions to address the capital gap, the bank has said.

[Reuters]