In reference to the article labelled “Piraeus Bank to Have a US Fund as Strategic Investor”, published today in the newspaper “HRIMATISTIRIO” (issue 4813/17.05.2013), Piraeus Bank would like to apprise the investment community that during the last days there has been a large number of transactions on its ordinary share from a multitude of investors including large institutionals; however, the data available in its share registry (transactions settled as of 14 May 2013) provide no indication of the existence of any strategic investor in the Bank’s share capital.
Moreover, the legal framework in force, requires disclosure of shareholder positions in the share capital of listed companies when such positions exceed or fall below the thresholds provided under Law 3556/2007 starting from 5% of the total shares or voting rights in the company. In a similar fashion, under existing banking regulation (Law 3601/2007), any acquisition of 5% or more of the share capital in a banking institution requires prior notification to the Bank of Greece while any acquisition of 10% or more, requires prior approval of said Regulator.