Vgenopoulos: MIG won’t bid for Piraeus, Bank of Cyprus

Marfin Investment Group (MIG) will not make a bid to buy Bank of Piraeus or Bank of Cyprus, MIG's Executive Vice-Chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos said on Wednesday.
"At this point, there are two cases … that are out of reach (for a purchase by MIG): one is Bank of Cyprus, where the country's regulatory authority won't allow us to buy in," Vgenopoulos told a conference call.

"The other is Bank of Piraeus, where there is a standstill agreement for no transaction between us (before 2010). This is a barrier for discussions," he said, a day after Marfin announced it would make a 5 billion euro capital increase to fund investments.
In January 2007, Marfin had made a simultaneous bid to acquire Bank of Cyprus at EUR 11.14 and Piraeus for EUR 25.2 through a share exchange at a time when its share price was EUR 8.90.

Bank of Cyprus was last trading at EUR 5.80, Marfin Popular Bank at EUR 3.60 and Piraeus at EUR 14.50 while the share price of MIG was last trading at EUR 4.90.

MIG will seek shareholder approval on October 27 to proceed with the proposal to issue 834 mln new shares at EUR 6 per share seeking to raise EUR 5 bln. Last year, MIG raised a record EUR 5.2 bln in one of the largest share issues ever made at EUR 6.70 per share.
Vgenopoulos is confident that major shareholders will cover between EUR 3-4 bln and other high net worth individuals, investment and pension funds will cover the remaining EUR 1-2 bln.
It has not been clarified if Marfin Popular Bank will also have fee income of 1% of the assets of MIG, or if the arrangement, which has always been said is subject to alteration will be amended.