GOING AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF THE GREEK PRESS Alpha Bank is looking for recapitalization

Alpha Bank is assessing several equity bolstering measures, bank officials said yesterday, after the Greek press reported that the lender may sell 30% of its Eastern European countries, including the one in Romania, to the EBRD.

"Alpha Bank announces that, in the context of the recapitalization of Greek banks, the bank is assessing several capital consolidation measures, but there is no agreement with the EBRD concerning the aforementioned measures", according to the press release of the bank.

The same reply came from the European institution. The officials of the EBRD made the following statement for the "BURSA" newspaper: "There are no talks of any transactions of the kind".

According to a Greek publication, quoted by Bloomberg, Alpha Bank may conclude an agreement to sell up to 30% of its South-Eastern subsidiaries, including the one in Romania, to the EBRD. The plan would include the separation of its divisions in Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia from the parent-bank and placing them in a holding, in which the EBRD would later buy a stake.

According to information existing on the market, the news which appeared in the Greek press may be just a rumor, to see whether the plan would garner support, and if there are positive reactions, then the plan would be implemented. Such strategies are frequent on the financial market.

Also, according to market scenarios, Alpha Bank may try to attract a credible partner on its side, since EFG Eurobank severely criticized its decision to abandon the merger, claiming that it undermines Greece's efforts to exit the current crisis and to return to growth.

Last year, Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank concluded a merger agreement, but in January, Alpha Bank announced it would back out of the deal, due to the impact of the restructuring of the Greek debt.

Alpha Bank summoned the General Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting of Shareholders on April 26th, to decide on the withdrawal from the merger with EFG Eurobank, by cancelling the decision of General Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting of Shareholders of November 15th, 2011, as well as the disengagement of any contractual obligations to or in favour of EFG Eurobank.

At the end of September 2011, the Romanian subsidiary of Alpha Bank, had a net profit before taxes of seven million Euros, down 80% YOY.

The bank's financial results for the entire year 2011 will be published on April 20th, according to an announcement made by the bank.

Even though the merger between the two Greek banks fell through, which would have resulted in the creation of the third largest bank in Romania in terms of assets, the Romanian M&A market was unlocked through the sale of a small bank. Hungarians of MKB Bank last week sold their Romanian subsidiary, MKB Romexterra Bank, to "PineBridge Investments".

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the fact that the Romanian banking system has too many banks, with the latest such statement coming from Steven van Groningen, the president of Raiffeisen Bank, who said that ten years from now, there would be no more room for more than three, four universal banks.