ATHENS: Piraeus Bank, Greece s fifth largest lender, on Tuesday dismissed a press report that it is planning a large rights issue to fund the acquisition of banks in Egypt and Greece. At this moment, there is no deal or negotiations to buy a bank in Greece or in Egypt, as the press report claims. Moreover, information regarding a 700 million to 1.0 billion euro rights issue is not true, the bank said in a stock market filing. Speculation that Greek banks are exploring acquisitions abroad has intensified after National Bank s deal last week to buy 46 percent of Turkish Finansbank for 2.3 billion euros, a record Greek-Turkish deal. Piraeus, currently present in the United States, Albania, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Egypt, said its strategy to expand in southeastern Europe is well known to investors and it intends to implement it both via organic growth of its network and acquisitions. In this context, the bank said it continues to search for acquisition targets in countries of strategic interest and often reviews data on foreign banks. Last year Piraeus ventured into Egypt, buying out Egyptian Commercial Bank (ECB), now named Piraeus Bank Egypt. Reuters
