The Piraeus Bank hereby announces that on Thursday 17 November 2005 16,653,425 new ordinary registered shares in the Piraeus Bank S.A. will become available on the Athens Stock Exchange. The shares have been issued as a result of the increase in the Bank's share capital owing to its takeover of the Elliniki Etaireia Ependyseon Hartofylakiou A.E. [Greek Investment Portfolio Company S.A.], whose listing was approved by the Board of the Stock Exchange at its meeting of 8.11.2005.
From the same date, 17.11.2005, the starting price for trading of shares in the Piraeus Bank S.A. on the Athens Stock Exchange will be decided under the provisions of Decision 37/08.07.2004 of the Board of the Athens Stock Exchange, in combination with Decision 18/291/22.01.2004 of the Capital Market Commission, as amended and currently in force.
We hereby certify that by Thursday 17 November 2005 the above new shares will have been credited, by the Central Securities Depositary S.A., through the Intangible Securities System, in the securities accounts of the shareholders registered on 10 November 2005 of the Greek Investment Portfolio Company S.A., on the basis of the approved exchange arrangement.
It should be noted that the exchange arrangement is as follows: a) each shareholder in the Piraeus Bank S.A. will exchange one (1) ordinary registered voting share with a face value of €4.15 for one (1) ordinary registered voting share in the Piraeus Bank S.A., with a face value of €4.77 each, issued as a result of the merger; b) each shareholder in the Greek Investment Portfolio Company S.A. will exchange one (1) ordinary bearer share with a face value of €2.50 for 0.20746888 of an ordinary registered voting share in the Piraeus Bank S.A., with a face value of €4.77 each, issued as a result of the merger; i.e. 4.82 shares in the Greek Investment Portfolio Company S.A. will be exchanged for one (1) share in the Piraeus Bank S.A.
Since the share exchange involves fractions of shares, the shareholders are to be granted a period of six months from the listing either to dispose of the shares or to acquire the fractional balance to form complete share units. If no action is taken over this six-month period, the fractional rights shall be sold, under the supervision of the Piraeus Bank S.A., through the Athens Stock Exchange, and the product of the sale shall be transferred to those holding the shares.
Following the merger, approved by the Ministry of Development by Decision Κ2-13692/10.11.2005, the share capital of the Piraeus Bank S.A. now amounts to € 1,024,931,970.18 divided among 214,870,434 ordinary registered shares, with a face value of € 4.77 each.
The instrument drawn up to complete the merger was forwarded to the Board of the Capital Market Commission on 8 November 2005 and was published on 10 November 2005 on the Athens Stock Exchange website www.ase.gr.
For more information shareholders may contact the Shareholders Register Department of the Piraeus Bank S.A. (4, Aristeidou St. 105 59 Athens, tel.: 210-3335211, 210-3288011 & 210-3335039).