Latham & Watkins Advises on Landmark Recapitalization for Greece’s Largest Bank

Piraeus Financial Holdings S.A. (Piraeus Holdings), one of Greece’s largest financial institutions, announced that it has successfully completed its offering of 1.2 billion new ordinary shares to institutional investors internationally and to retail and qualified investors in Greece at an offer price of €1.15 per share, generating proceeds of €1.38 billion. The transaction represents the largest institutional equity raise in Greece since 2015.

Latham & Watkins advised the Joint Global Coordinators (Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE and UBS Europe SE), the Joint Bookrunners (BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Ambrosia Capital, AXIA Ventures Group, Euroxx Securities S.A. and Piraeus Securities S.A), and the Co-Managers (Pantelakis Securities S.A. and WOOD & Company) on the transaction.

The cross-border Latham team was led by London partner Ryan Benedict, with Milan associates Giorgio Thomson Ignazzi and Marta Negro, Milan capital markets lawyer Irene Pistotnik, and London associates Sean Meehan and Nick Fisher. Advice was also provided on tax matters by New York partner Jocelyn Noll and London partner Karl Mah, with Madrid associate Blanca Vazquez de Castro.

Milbank LLP advised Piraeus Holdings with a team led by European leveraged finance and capital markets partner Apostolos Gkoutzinis, special counsel Trevor Truman, and associates Dimos Papanikolaou, Chara Makrygianni, and Lefteris Dafermos. Advice was also provided by New York tax partner Eschi Rahimi-Laridjani and associate David Hanno, New York alternative investments partner Catherine Leef Martin and associate Megha Kalbag, London corporate partner Mark Stamp, European leveraged finance and capital markets of counsel Patrick Holmes, and London restructuring associate Jag Diogan.