Shearman & Sterling advised Piraeus Bank S.A. - the largest financial group in Greece by assets, loans, and deposits - on its €1.75 billion equity offering led by Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs as Joint Global Coordinators.

The purpose of the offering was to redeem €750 million of preference shares held in Piraeus Bank by the Greek state in the context of the 2008 Hellenic bank support plan and to meet capital adequacy criteria recently announced by the Greek banking regulator.

The offering was the first to launch in Greece following the recapitalisation of Greek banks in the summer of 2013 by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (an entity set up under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the European Central Bank), and involved solely private investor participation, showing the Greek banking sector is bouncing back from the world’s biggest sovereign debt crisis.

The Team