NBG Withstands Halted Rival Bank Merger (NBG)

National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) is actually holding up rather well considering the woes of an ultimate Greek government debt default risk and that is whether or not a deal gets signed with creditors this week or not.  The larger issue directly pertaining to the bank itself is a rival bank merger being put on hold between Alpha and Eurobank.  We saw wire headlines hit today that this merger is not either being put on hold or that it is widely expected to go on hold.  The news is that the banks were halted in Athens trading (yes, they actually have a stock exchange).  Alpha Bank, which is Greece’s third largest bank by assets, is freezing merger plans while it awaits more detail regarding a writedown as Greece is negotiating with its creditors.

NBG shares are trading down less than 1% at $3.21 and its adjusted 52-week trading range for its ADRs traded in New York is currently $1.64 to $11.85.