We would like to thank you again for your interest in Alpha Bank. With regards to your questions, please find below our answers.
The merger of Alpha Bank with Eurobank EFG is under way. Currently, the two banks are expecting a hearing by the Hellenic Competition Committee on January 23rd 2012, which will be followed by other approvals by several other competent authorities, most importantly from the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission and the Athens Stock Exchange.
Regarding capital, there are two issues that need to be determined and will affect our future planning. Firstly, we are expecting for the negotiations over the Private Sector Involvement deal for private bondholders of Greek Government Bonds to conclude in the coming weeks. The result of these will give us insight for any additional impairments that have to be taken on our Greek Government Bond portfolio. Secondly, Bank of Greece will evaluate the findings of Blackrock’s diagnostic loan test regarding additional provisions and will determine the capital shortfall that will arise. Greek banks will then have to submit their business and capital plans, which will be examined in association with the US firm Bain & Company, one of the world’s biggest consultancy groups, acting as an independent consultant for the assessment of the plans’ feasibility.
With reference to your question about the payment of the security in your possession, please kindly note that relevant decisions will be made close to the coupon payment date. As for the exchange offer for preference securities proposed by National Bank of Greece, we are following actions from all market participants and peers both in Greece and abroad very closely, although currently, we have no further comments to make on that issue.
For further details regarding legal matters, we kindly refer you to the prospectus for the issuance of the bonds (see attached documents for the issuance of preferred securities of €200mn in 2002 and €100mn in 2003).
In closing, we would appreciate it if you would provide us with your contact details for our files.