Financial markets

Greek banks are preparing their own bond issues following the country's successful return to the markets after three years.

The yield on a Greek government bond maturing in 2019 fell on Monday to its lowest level since it was issued three years ago, as Athens prepared to end a three-year exile from financial markets.

For the first time since 2014, the environment is benign for Greece's quest to return to the bond markets: the completion of the second bailout review, the improved state of the Greek economy and the revitalized sense of purpose in the eurozone after Emmanuel Macron's victory in France all pave the road to success.

Greece's short-term objective is to return to bond markets and this will be possible even without the inclusion of its bonds in the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program, the country's finance minister said on Thursday.

Piraeus Bank won shareholder approval at a meeting on Wednesday for a reverse stock split to reduce the number of its outstanding shares, which it hopes will improve their tradability.

Nearly seven years since the first law was introduced on the fast-track process for investments by then state minister Haris Pamboukis, only a handful of the projects that entered the scheme have been completed, and not one has started operating.

Shipowners from Greece have submitted more than twice as many orders for new vessels as any other country so far this year, making the most of the exceptionally low prices at Asian shipyards, particularly those in South Korea, which have been offering discounts to attract more orders and cover some of their debts.

Turkish retailer Boyner Holding is looking to sell up to 60 percent of its online fashion site, Morhipo.com, and has mandated brokerage Ünlü & Co to advise on the sale, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The Bank of Greece has been forced to raise the limit of its emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to local banks for the first time since July 2015 due to the continued outflow of deposits from the Greek credit system.

The Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) on Tuesday presented the head of the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling, with figures showing the improvement in the fundamentals of the local credit system in 2016 while informing him of the challenges it now faces, particularly as regards liquidity and the efficient management of nonperforming loans.