- "There is vivid interest already from both hedge funds and institutional investors," says Petros Christodoulou, deputy CEO of National Bank of Greece (NBG +4.4%). The €750M senior unsecured bond will be the first such issue by the bank in nearly 5 years, and it's expected to have a 5-year maturity and be priced to yield around 4.5% (the government just sold 5-year paper last week at 4.95%).
- The bond sale comes alongside an expected €2.5B equity offering aimed at filling the large capital hole in the bank.
- The moves comes as Piraeus Bank - the largest Greek lender - last month raised €500M in debt, followed by a €1.75B equity sale. Third-ranked lender Alpha Bank has also raised €1.2B in capital and #4 Eurobank has an investor group ready to anchor a €2.9B stock sale later in April.
- Greek ETF: GREK