Piraeus Bank to list unit Geniki Bank in next six months

Piraeus Bank SA, Greece's second-largest bank, is planning to list unit Geniki Bank on the stock exchange in the next six months, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people briefed on the plan.

Piraeus has hired Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays PLC to advise on the listing, which could raise about 200 million euros ($270 million) to 300 million euros, the newspaper reported. ()

Piraeus will try to retain 10 percent to 20 percent of Geniki for the time being, the FT said.

Piraeus bought the smaller lender from France's Societe Generale last year.

It said this month that 12 percent of its workforce had signed up for voluntary redundancy, as it tries to reduce costs following recent acquisitions.

Piraeus was profitable in the first half of this year thanks to one-off gains on the book value of its Cypriot banking operations, which camouflaged the effect of bad loans brought about by recession in Greece.

The bank was not immediately available for comment. Deutsche Bank and Barclays could not be reached outside regular business hours.