Bank forays to raise €3 billion

Greek banks will try to raise funds amounting to about 3 billion euros on the market this year, in a bid to strengthen their capital adequacy and shield their liquidity so that they will be able to support the economy.

Besides Piraeus Bank's €1.1 billion share capital increase, aimed at the lender's capital strengthening ahead of drastic action to streamline its fundamentals, market forays by other banks will take place through Tier II security issues and senior bonds, which should fetch an estimated €2 billion. The funds to come by way of the Tier II bonds will bolster the capital indexes of the lenders, while the cash from the preferred senior notes will be used to enhance banks' cash flows.

Therefore Alpha Bank will resort to the markets as its management is preparing the issue of a Tier II paper worth €500-600 million, and then a preferred senior note of about ...