Fairfax to raise its stake in Eurobank Properties
Canadian investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings will raise its stake in Greek real estate firm Eurobank Properties to 42 percent from 19 percent, parent Eurobank said yesterday. Fairfax and Eurobank aim to strengthen their relationship as share-
OPAP’s board held an emergency meeting yesterday and reportedly approved the deal with Intralot for the supply by the latter of technological equipment. The deal has incited the wrath of Emma Delta, the consortium which has won the tender for the acquisition of a controlling stake in the OPAP gaming company. holders of Eurobank Properties and boost its resources to make it a leading player in the country’s real estate market. Under the deal, Eurobank Properties will proceed with a rights offering of about 200 million euros at 4.80 euros a share, with Fairfax exercising its own rights and purchasing Eurobank’s rights for 20 million euros. After the capital increase Eurobank will hold about 33.5 percent in the real estate firm provided all other shareholders exercise their rights. “The Greek people have worked through tremendous hardship but we think the light is now visible at the end of the tunnel,” Prem Watsa, chairman and CEO of Fairfax, said in a statement, referring to the country’s economic crisis. Eurobank Properties has a current market capitalization of 406 million euros. Fairfax will pump in about 164 million through the rights offering. As part of the deal, the two sides will agree that Eurobank will retain management control at Eurobank Proper- ties until June 2020, with Fairfax represented at the firm’s board with customary veto rights. Eurobank, Greece’s fourthlargest lender, opted to be fully recapitalized by a state bank rescue fund to plug a 5.84-billion-euro capital hole after losses on sovereign debt writedowns and bad loans. It has fallen under the full control of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund. Earlier this year, Fairfax had expressed interest in taking part in National Bank’s recapitalization but a deal did not materialize as the fund’s conditions could not be met.
Capital controls.
The euro area’s first restrictions on the movement of capital are doing more damage to Cyprus’s economy than a one-time levy on savings, and must be lifted as soon as possible, the island’s Commerce, Tourism and Industry Minister George Lakkotrypis said yesterday.