Greece's fourth-largest lender Piraeus Bank said a repeat shareholder meeting on Monday to approve a 1.05 billion euro ($1.06 billion) cash call did not reach quorum and will be repeated later in the month. "Monday's shareholders meeting needed a quorum of 50-plus percent. The second repeat assembly on Dec 20 will need a quorum of 33.3 percent," said the official, who did not want to be named. Hurt like other Greek banks by the country's debt crisis, Piraeus is aiming to reduce counterparty worries, regain access to wholesale funding and reduce dependence on the European Central Bank. Its planned capital boost will comprise an 800 million euro rights issue and $331.4 million of convertible bonds. Piraeus has said it has underwriting commitments for the full amount of the rights issue from Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which will act as global coordinators. The group, also present in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus, Egypt, Ukraine and the United States, will be the second Greek lender to opt for a big capital increase. National Bank, Greece's biggest lender, raised 1.8 billion euros in October.
