Hellenic denies Piraeus joint expansion into Russia report

The Head of Strategic Development of Hellenic Bank (HB), Yannis Telonis has denied a report appearing on Bloomberg claiming that the Cypriot Bank is in talks with Bank of Piraeus SA to expand in Russia and east Europe.

The report was issued by Bloomberg, but Telonis told the Financial Mirror that he was misquoted and the Bloomberg reporter was explicitly told that there was no truth to the story.

“I told the reporter that if any, he should put it is a footnote as an item that was previously discussed when Piraeus Chairman M. Salas was in Cyprus, but there is nothing to it,” Telonis told the Financial Mirror.

Telonis was quoted by Bloomberg having said that since Hellenic Bank has about 8,000 Cyprus-based clients doing business with Russia, who benefit from an accord avoiding double taxation, there was a lot of scope to do business and expand operations there.

In any event,  Hellenic plans to increase the number of its branch network in Greece to 45 in four years, from the current 25 branches. Currently, HB has a representative office in Moscow and plans to open another office in St. Petersburg this year while adding two branches in the Russian capital next year.

The Bank recently won approval from its shareholders during the AGM to issue additional capital through the issue of 20 mln shares at a 10% discount to prevailing prices, which could net it some EUR 70-75 mln.

Hellenic Bank is also counting on new Tier 1 capital when the US type warrants are converted into shares, netting the Bank around EUR 50 mln. In addition to this, the Bank also boasts free capital estimated by Egnatia Financial Services of EUR 140 mln, which fully supports an aggressive expansion drive abroad.

A major pillar of HB’s strategy is to expand into new dynamic markets with excellent prospects to enhance size and profitability.