MIG, Marfin Popular Bank & WIND Hellas in strategic alliance

Marfin Investment Group (MIG), Marfin Popular Bank (MPB) and WIND Hellas Group announced they have reached an agreement for a broad Strategic Alliance to jointly exploit new growth opportunities in the telecommunications and banking sector in Greece.
The Strategic Alliance between the three Groups is based on a shared vision for unified communications, emerging ICT offerings and the development of sophisticated banking services using mobile technology and allows all three Groups to drive new growth opportunities with the potential to ultimately transform the Telecoms and Banking Markets in the region.
By engaging all three Groups as applicable at the business, marketing and technology levels, the alliance spans through the complete spectrum of Telecom services (Fixed, Mobile and Data) leveraging on the know-how of MIG’s daughter company SingularLogic in the Information Technology market as well as on all three parties leading business status in SEE.
MIG is today the leading business Group in SEE with –amongst other- 52 thousand employees, 10 thousand suppliers, and a combined customer base in excess of 20 million in 40 countries.
MPB is, in turn, one of the largest financial institutions in SEE offering a complete range of financial services in Cyprus, Greece, Serbia, Romania, UK, Australia, and other SEE and developed markets. The Group has an established presence in 13 countries, a branch network of 477 branches in Cyprus, Greece and international locations, and a labour force of more than 8.000 employees.
WIND Hellas serves more than 5.5 million customers in Greece both in the mobile as well as the fixed telephony market, being an integrated telecom operator after the buyout of Tellas, with an extensive network of 400 WIND stores all over the country.
The business opportunities to be jointly pursued by WIND Hellas, MIG and MPB concern the following preliminary identified areas:
1.Establish a joint ICT offering in the B2B Market, targeting professionals, SMEs, Large Enterprises, MIG and MPB companies included.
2.Proceed with commercial branding agreements, utilizing the branding strength of specific MIG Group companies and activities
3.Exploit synergies in Telco Infrastructure, through utilization of MIG’s and MPB’s vast PoP network
4.Pursue joint initiatives in Retail, through shop-in-shop and kiosk-in-shops concepts, as well as cross selling opportunities for distribution of products and services of the three Groups through each other’s distribution networks
5.Define a preferred Technology Provider status for MIG with respect to WIND Information Technology requirements.
6.Work together to develop services in the mobile banking area
By launching these and other future initiatives MIG, MPB and WIND Hellas aim at creating significant value to their shareholders, customers and employees; enabling them to realize sizeable benefits through the utilization of already identified solid opportunities in a market increasingly calling for converged, innovative, ICT solutions.
John Karakadas, MIG Deputy CEO stated:
“Today, MIG makes a decisive step in fulfilling its plans to enter the attractive Telecoms Market, and we feel confident of the prospects of our partnership with one of the most dynamic and innovative Telecom Groups in SE Europe with whom we share similar views and jointly we can really make a difference. MIG has made a careful evaluation of the local Telecoms Market and its participants in the past 12 months. We feel comfortable that our selected path enables us to utilize fully the tremendous opportunities the market currently offers, while minimizing investment risks, especially in light of a challenging macroeconomic environment”.
Efthimios Bouloutas, MPB CEO stated:
“In recent years the way the financial services industry conducts business has changed rapidly. The ability to offer financial transactions securely through advanced mobile networks and electronic communications has opened up a huge market for financial institutions interested in offering value added services. MPB, a pioneer by nature, is once more, through its Strategic Cooperation with WIND, in a pole position to develop a wide range of services to its customers through electronic and mobile banking applications.”
Socrates Kominakis, WIND Hellas CEO commented:
“The vigour and the size of the three groups render this strategic cooperation a particularly important development for the Greek ICT market. Our group, WIND Hellas, pursues continuous growth by constantly extending its business footprint and by building relations of trust with our customers. The strategic agreement with MIG and MPB expresses this philosophy”.