GREECE: Piraeus says Irish bail-out no threat to cash call

The Irish bailout has triggered a legal clause allowing the underwriters of Piraeus Bank's cash call to walk away, but the Greek bank said the deal was on track.
The documents for the 800 mln euro rights issue include an exit trigger allowing banks to cancel their commitment to underwrite the cash call in case of a "material adverse change".
"There shall not have occurred in the judgment of the global co-ordinators any crisis or calamity or material adverse change (MAC) or material adverse development in Germany, the UK, U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland or Portugal", the clause states, according to people with access to the document.
The bank that maintains a subsidiary in Cyprus and has underwriting commitments from a number of banks for the full amount of the rights issue said the process was continuing as normal.
"The rights issue is proceeding as planned with the underwriters which have been hired, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs International and Morgan Stanley," Chief Executive Officer Alexandros Manos told Reuters.
"The agreement is the standard one for rights issues in eurozone periphery countries," he said.
Greece's fourth-largest lender announced plans for the cash call last month but is still awaiting shareholder approval after it had to postpone a general meeting on Tuesday due to a lack of quorum.
The banks could walk away from the underwriting issue up to the point subscription on the offer begins, when they will be asked to agree underwrite the offer on specific terms.
The European Union and the IMF have agreed to help bail out Ireland with loans to help tackle its banking and budget crisis after the country requested aid.
Alongside the share issue, which Piraeus said it expected to launch in January next year, the bank also plans to issue 250 mln euros of convertible bonds.