English
Hellenic Bank Ltd., the third-largest lender in Cyprus, said it may team up with Bank of Piraeus SA, Greece"s No. 4 bank, to expand to eastern Europe, to tap growing demand for financial services in the region. Hellenic also may consider buying a ``small"" Russian bank.
"We are in preliminary talks with Piraeus to combine in a joint venture our assets in Russia and theirs in Romania, Bulgaria and other eastern European states," said Ioannis Telonis, Hellenic"s head of strategic development. Hellenic would like to complete the talks in six months. ``An accord will allow us to grow faster in these expanding markets,"" he added.
Hellenic, founded in 1974, has a market value of 870 million EUR (1.2 billion USD) and its shares have more than doubled over the past year. An alliance with Hellenic would give Piraeus, which operates in five eastern European countries, quick entry into the Russian market, where it"s not present. Piraeus has 189 branches in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.
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