Eurobank eyes new bond of 500mn euros

Bloomberg

Eurobank Ergasias SA may issue new bonds in 2018 and is also crafting a new plan to reduce its exposure to bad loans for period after 2019.
The Athens-based lender issued a covered bond in 2017, its first return to debt capital markets since 2014. “We’re considering issuance of another covered or senior bond during the course of 2018,” Fokion Karavias, the bank’s chief executive officer said in interview in Athens.
A new issue could be as much as 500 million euros ($580.9 million), but “given that we aren’t in a rush, we will consider all available options before taking our final decision,” Karavias said. Any move is subject to market conditions which have become challenging due to external factors, he added.
European Central Bank stress test results early in May showed that Eurobank, as well as Greece’s three other systemic banks, have no capital shortfall and aren’t required to submit capital raising plans. Still, the lenders are struggling to recover from the steepest recession in the country’s modern history which has left them with the highest ratio of soured loans in the euro area.
The toughest job for Greek banks at the moment is to reduce the size of their bad loans. “It’s our responsibility to show to the market in a convincing way how from the projected 2019 levels we can move lower to a mid-teens non-performing exposure ratio in the following years.”