Hellenic Bank boosts capital with Cyprus share issue

Hallenic Bank announced an increase in its share capital by 46.8 mln euros through a rights issue that will result in 271.9 mln new shares this week. This comes on the back of a first quarter profit of 8 mln euros.
Hellenic posted a loss of 99.5 mln euros last year after the writedown of 110 mln euros in Greek sovereign debt, a fraction of the amount that its peers Bank of Cyprus and Popular lost having written off nearly 2.5 bln euros in GGBs.
Unlike other banks, Hellenic’s major shareholder, the Church of Cyprus, declared from the outset that it would support the bank and its rights issue, extending confidence to other investors too.