How A Greek Bank Merger Is Helping The Stock Market (NBG)

Americans often think that if a foreign stock does not have an ADR here in America that the company doesn’t matter as much.  Sometimes that is true, but not this morning.  Europe, and Greek regulators, are cheering an announced merger where Alpha Bank and Eurobank will merge to create the country’s largest bank.  In support of the financing, there will be a 1.25 billion Euro rights issue and a 500 million Euro convertible bond deal.

The companies claim that another 2.1 billion Euros will come from internal measures and the Greek Central Bank (they actually have one) is supporting the merger. The new merger makes the #2 and #3 bank the new #1 bank in Greece.

If you want to know what this does for value, look no further than National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG).  This one is not even a part of the merger but it highlights its value if there is such a thing.  Shares are indicated up a whopping 38% at $1.15 this morning in active trading in New York for its ADRs.

The quotes attributed to the value from Greek central bank head George Provopoulos are as follows: “Today’s decision on the Alpha-EFG Eurobank merger for the creation of a big and strong bank is the first pivotal step in changing the Greek banking map… As I have repeatedly said, this kind of strategic moves help boost the banking system’s competitiveness and financial stability significantly.”

As you could imagine, there may be some skeptics out there on this merger regardless of the first reaction.

JON C. OGG