Official announcement on the new Alpha-Eurobank

And the name of the new bank will be Alpha-Eurobank, with the logo of the old Pisteos Bank.

The administrations of the two banks, headed by chairman Yiannis Kostopoulos and managing director Dimitris Matzounis of Alpha Bank, and chairman Timos Chrstodoulou and CEO Nikos Nanopoulos of Eurobank, spoke at Hilton on Monday afternoon about the super deal that creates a whole new setting in the domestic banking system, sealed by Paramount, the Qatar fund that will immediately put half a billion euros in the new format.

As it was mentioned, Qatar will inject this particular amount through the issuing of Mandatory Convertible Securities (MCN's), to be followed by a capital increase of 1,25 billion euros.

The exchange ratio was fixed at 5 new ordinary shares of Alpha Bank for every 7 ordinary shares of Eurobank, while the "pillars" of the new institution will be the three major shareholders who represent the Kostopoulos family, the Latsis family and Paramount Services Holding Limited, each of which supports the merger and the plan for recapitalization.

In the new format, Qatar will have 17%, Latsis Group 13% and Yiannis Kostopoulos 4%.

The new group will have a significant presence in Southeastern Europe with a network of more than 1.300 branches in 8 countries, and will be among the three largest banking groups in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.

It will be included in the 25 largest banking groups in the Eurozone, with pro forma total assets of 146 billion euros, and will have the right size to introduce its stock as a stock of reference in the international markets.

For 2010, the consolidated format showed a pro forma profit of 2,6 billion euros.

The two banks maintain that the synergies resulting from the merger are around 650 million euros annually, while the capital adequacy ratio will reach 10,6%, as there will be a total capital stock buffer of 4 billion euros.

The impact of the impairment of bonds, because of private sector involvement (PSI) in the plan for the rescue of the Greek economy, will be around 1,2 billion euros.

As protothema.gr reported yesterday, Yiannis Kostopoulos will be the chairman of the board, while Alpha Bank’s Dimitris Matzounis will be the co-managing director assuming the operational responsibilities of the central and inspection services, along with Eurobank’s Nikos Nanopoulos, who will be responsible for entrepreneurial activities.