Wednesday 11 July 2007

Financial Times "Greek glimmers"

Could it be the gloomy rain clouds hanging over northern Europe that have foreign investors rushing south to Greece to snap up shares in the latest government sale of another old-fashioned state bank?

The Greek finance ministry was set to raise just over €500m ($685m) yesterday from a private placement of 20 per cent of Postal Savings Bank, cutting its holding to 45 per cent. The big buyers appear to be foreign institutions…

Greek households are still underborrowed by eurozone standards and there is a feeling that the bank will modernize fast under Panos Tsoupides, its ebullient chief executive and former HSBC executive.

Ian Bickerton, Gerrit Wiesmann, Kerin Hope