Reuters
February 20, 2012
Relief that listed Greek banks will escape nationalization has seen the sector soar this year, helping Athens outperform major European bourses throughout tense weeks when the country teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.
While international investors fretted about Greece's debt negotiations, domestic buyers helped banks such as National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank more than double their share prices in six weeks.
Investors initially worried that government plans to recapitalize the banks would involve issuing common voting shares, which would give the state effective control.
But plans confirmed by the government now envisage recapitalization via common shares with restricted voting rights or convertible bonds that would leave the banks in private hands.
The Athens General index - which shed more than 50 percent in four months to hit an all-time closing low on January 10 - has since soared almost 35 percent, outpacing the rise in the euro zone blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 index by roughly four times.
The Athens index remains at half its 2011 peak and the banking sector just a third of its highs of last year.
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