- PIRAEUS BANK
Piraeus Bank's rating upgrade captures its strengthened capital base, sizeable holdings of EFSF bonds and improvements in its funding and liquidity profile, balanced by the high NPL levels driving the bank's current operational losses.
Following its recapitalisation, the bank's core Tier 1 ratio increased to 13.5% at the end of September 2013, well above the 9% minimum requirement set by Bank of Greece. This provides the bank with a solid loss-absorption cushion in view of its elevated NPLs, at 35.2% of gross loans. Piraeus Bank reported a net profit of EUR3.2 billion in the first nine months of 2013, as a result of a one-off negative goodwill gain of EUR3.8 billion from its recent acquisitions at a deep discount. However, Moody's expects the bank to remain loss making at an operating level in 2013-14, primarily because of high loan loss provision requirements.
The bank holds a total of around EUR14.3 billion of EFSF bonds (Aa1, negative), which mitigate the risks stemming from its direct sovereign exposure of around EUR2.3 billion, and enhance the bank's overall credit-risk profile. EFSF bonds represent around 15.4% of its total assets, and were received mainly from the HFSF as part of its recapitalisation. The EFSF bonds have also helped reduce the bank's funding and liquidity pressures, with overall central bank funding down to around EUR15 billion in September 2013, from EUR33 billion in September 2012. Following the takeover of six different entities over the past 18 months, significant progress has been made to integrate these entities and Moody's expects Piraeus Bank to benefit from synergies as the largest commercial bank in Greece.
www.moodys.com/research/...anks--PR_287880?lang=de&cy=ger
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